#but i miss when it was just grimms fairytales

[snowangeldotmp3]

my newest enemy: ouat season 7.

#in my mind ouat ends after the 4th season #liv watches things #i want to make a haha joke about it but i can’t. liek genuinely all of the soul has been sucked out of the show #like ouat has always been a ridiculous premise but at least they WENT WITH IT and weren’t scared to be weird. but s7 feels like it’s trying #to be every other procedural that was on air in 2017-2018 #with assorted disney properties thrown in there #like at least i could handle the frozen stuff. or peter pan or whatever #but i miss when it was just grimms fairytales #RANT OVER. for now……

[adarkrainbow]

Given I have made two posts already about "Hansel and Gretel", or variations of the story, I'll make this fairytale the Grimm fairytale of this season. And since everybody knows Hansel and Gretel, and I already spoke somehow about it, I'll just leave below several notes, trivia and facts.

I have spoken before about the "original" version of the Brothers Grimm fairytale - aka the first edition of the text, and how it changed and evolved up to the story we know today. Many of these changes are well-known by the public - for example how the wicked stepmother was originally a wicked MOTHER (but the Grimm changed it because they had a mother-worship thing going on) ; or how the whole "duck scene" where the kids are helped crossing the river by birds was added later and not present in the original text. Some are less known, such as the fact that the "heavenly wind" rhyme was not part of the original text, or how Hansel's prison was originally not some sort of stable like in the final text but a tiny hicken coop.

In terms of "sibling stories" when we look at the great patches of historical fairytales and older literary works, you will find a lot of people pointing out to the Italian fairytale "Ninnillo and Nennella" by Basile - but I have to strongly disagree with this claim, because while Basile's fairytale does contain the motif of "boy/girl sblings abandoned several times in the woods, using various objects to find their way back, until it fails and they are lost forever", beyond that the fairytale has little to no relationship with Hansel and Gretel. A more direct ancestry and relationship has to be found in the French fairytale. More precisely in Perrault's Little Thumbling, Le Petit Poucet, which is also a story about children abandoned in the woods due to a lack of food, that found their way back several times before the birds eat the bread, and that end up in the house of a man-eater, an ogre trying to kill them. But we are still quite away from the German tale - and it is another French literary fairytale that forms the "missing link" in this chain. Madame d'Aulnoy's "Cunning Cinders" (Finette Cendron). This story doesn't involve children, but four young women - however it still follows the Hansel and Gretel formula very closely. Abandoned by their parents in the wilderness, manage to get back several times before it fails, end up trapped in the house of man-eaters, and the titular character defeats the ogre by pushing hm into a fiery oven... Of course, beyond that d'Aulnoy has a ton of additional content - such as the ogre having a wife that must be beheaded ; the lost girls being helped by a fairy godmother ; and the second part of the story being an alternate Cinderella.

But all in all it shows a point I made previously, and talked about in my ogre posts: the structure and type of the "Hansel and Gretel" story is originally an ogre tale. All older versions of the story involve ogres, not witches - but since the German do not have "ogres" in their folklore, the ogress was replaced by a witch. And despite this replacement, the witch of the story keeps several ogre traits - such as a motif of "the elderly devours youth", the idea of the witch having a poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell, or the entire "maternal perversion" motif. Which is my next point.

"Hansel and Gretel" is a familial tragedy, like many other fairytales. But the family of Hansel and Gretel is an actually extremely bizarre one. You can see, once you know your folklore and fairytale lore, that despite it being considered a "classic" and a "foundation", this tale is actually a fragmented and pieced-together story that leaves numerous gaps and is much more muddled and confused than its equivalents and predecessors. What I mean by that is that, when you look at the familial relationships in this story, you will discover several remnants of an older and more commonspread familial structure that was erased, and only leaves bizarre analogies in the new set of characters the tale offers.

To be clearer. We know that Hansel and Gretel are siblings, and that they have two parents - the father and the stepmother, formerly mother. The witch is an unrelated character acting as an outside element - or so it seems. The fairytale actually establishes a parallel and a connection between the wicked stepmother and the witch. They are parallel characters, two wicked women that want the death of children, but whereas one wants to throw the kids out of the house to leave them to starve or be devoured by beats, so she can have more food herself, the other imprisons the children in her house and overfeeds them to devour them later. A more direct link is established whenn the children return home, at the end of the tale, and discover that their step-mother is dead.

Some dark and edgy adaptations will have things such as the stepmother being killed by her husband, or killing herself, stuff like that - but by the tale alone, on just reading the words, and the first impression it leaves on a child, is that the stepmother mysteriously dies in unexplained ways right after the children burned the witch in her oven. The fact that the two wicked women end up deceased for the tale to end happily, the fact the stepmother's death is left unexplained while the witch's death is graphic and fully presented, the fact the stepmother's death is announced after the witch was killed... It all leaves the impression that the two were connected, and that by some sort of "parallel magic", killing the witch triggered the stepmother's death.

This is something many adaptations picked up upon, and you find versons where the witch and the mother look a lot alike, or are played by the same person, or are the same being. (One can compare it to Russian variations of the stories of Baba-Yaga, where wicked stepmothers sometimes send their nice stepdaughters a la Vasilisa the Fair, to the Yaga's house claiming the Yaga is their "sister"). All in all this continues the idea that the witch is a perverse take on the mother figure - nourishing and protecting children only to gulp them down into her stomach. Which, by the way, is the very symbolism and essence of ogres: fathers that kill, mothers that eat.

But while this is the most famous of the "perverse family connections" in the tale, there is another people tend to forget: the connection between Gretel and the witch. I talked heavily of the difference of treatment the witch has between Hansel and Gretel in a previous post ("Why was Hansel the meal of the witch?"). People have noted the strange discrepancy of Hansel being the one locked up and fattened up to be eaten, while Gretel became an abused slave. Many modern adaptations played on this element by having the witch planning on not eating Gretel, but making her an apprentice in witchcraft, an heir to her house, and treating her like a daughter/witch in training. After all, she does malnourish her, so she seems not keen on the idea of eating her at first...

But these modern adaptations actually picked up on something deeper and more fascinating. You see, the witch not locking up Gretel and treating her as her slave seems to be a leftover from older variants of the tale, because there is a widespread archetype in fairytales known as "the witch's daughter" or "the ogress' daughter". In many ogress or man-eating witches tales, the antagonist has a daughter that assists her in her chores. Sometimes the daughter will secretely help the protagonist escape and be an ally - but these are quite rare, and most of the time the daughter is the one the witch/ogress charges of killing-cooking the protagonist. Then the protagonist tricks the daughter, kills and cooks her instead of themselves, and serve her to their monstrous mother, who believes she is eating the protagonist, when in fact she devours her own daughter. It is a very typical structure in those tales, found from the Baba Yaga legends to the Kabyle tales of the teryel.

The witch's daughter archetype also exists in fairytales where the witch is not a man-eater, but rather an antagonist that imprisons people, or that imposes impossible tasks - and here, the daughter will be a more benevolent figure that will secretly help the protagonist escape the witch and/or overcome the trials and tasks the mother imposes. In fact, in several of those stories, the protagonist fights for the right to love and marry the witch's daughter.

All in all, the fact that Gretel is treated as a slave and assistant to the witch, that she is to help feeding and fattening her brother, etc, etc, implies that her character in the story of the Grimm is a leftover of the "ogress' daughter" or "witch's daughter" of older stories. As a result it makes even more sense for adaptations to have the witch treat Gretel as some sort of surrogate daughter, and it makes the whole family picture of the German story very messed up. The witch who tries to eat the children might be their mother/step-mother, and Gretel might be the witch's daughter.

Another motif that has been picked up by various adaptatons is the motif of birds. I remember long ago I stumbled upon a fascinating art series depicting the witch as a half-bird half-human creature - unfortunately the pictures are now lost in the vast pit of the Internet. More recently, another artist posted an image of Hansel in his cage, with the witch appearing a large, black bird above the cage, wearing a witch's hat.

All those art pieces reflected a true fact: "Hansel and Gretel" is a bird story. You have the birds that devour the bread crumbs, but also the pretty bird that leads the children to the witch's house, and the ducks that helps them cross the stream in the added ending of the Grimm. Some variations also have Hansel claim, when he keeps looking back at the house, that he is seeing a "pretty bird" instead of a "pretty cat" like in the Grimm's final text. As a result, some people did identify the birds that eat the breadcrumbs and/or the bird that leads the children to the house with the witch. The anime "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics" notably depicted the pretty bird luring the children to the house as the witch's familiar.

A last note: The idea that the witch's house is made of tons of various candies and sweets was popularized by various modern adaptations and retellings of the story. In the Grimm tale, the house isn't made of candy. It isn't even made of gingerbread as so many people believe! While it is common for people to think of this tale as "the one with the gingerbread house", I don't know where that comes from. In the text of the Grimm, the house is merely made of bread, plain old bread, with sugar for the windows. There are however cakes that are said to cover the house, as ornaments. Maybe people in retellings decided to mix together the "cake"and the "bread" and decided to make it "gingerbread"? I don't know.

#hansel and gretel #fairytale analysis #gretel #fairytale witch #the gingerbread house witch #grimm fairytales #german fairytales #the brothers grimm #hansel #birds in fairytales

[theboarsbride]

Faerie Book Recommendations🧚✨📚

So reading Sarah J Maas and her very, very shitty interpretation and (under)utilization of fae lore is inspiring me to create a personal list of books I've read that I feel like have like... ACTUAL faeries and folklore in them (not the normal-looking-hot-folks-with-pointy-ears-and-MAYBE-wings brand of faerie SJM popularized), and are actually worth your time

And if you've any books, stories, comics, etc. that you'd want to add to this list, feel free to add them in the comments, reblogs, tags, or my DMs!!

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Very eerie fairytale vibes that center on the aftermath of the disappearance, and even more mysterious return, of three sisters when one of them goes missing again almost 10 years later. And also the writing is legit just B E A U T I F U L!!!

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

This is chock-full of classical faeries and folklore, and almost reads like a textbook about them since this is about a woman, the titular Emily Wilde, traveling to a Scandinavian country to complete her own encyclopedia about the fair-folk. It also features some lowkey cottagecore vibes and an academic rivals-to-lovers romance!

Gilded (Gilded #1) by Marissa Meyer

A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that reads like its own dark Grimm's fairytale, and it's as eerie and grim as a YA fantasy novel can get. It also centers on themes of telling stories and folktales since the main character, Serilda, is infamous for spinning wild tales - which is what leads to her encounter with the famed, and feared, Earlking (who, as a villain, is so sinister and creepy - and utterly FAE!). Personally, this book wasn't really my cup of tea and I'm unsure if I'll read the sequel, Cursed, however it still has some classic fae vibes that SJM's work lacks, so it deserves a place on this list!

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

I'm using the term 'faerie' very loosely here, as the idea of changelings (and trolls), for me, is more of a narrative device to help us look into grief in fatherhood. But there is still a very strange, vaguely Pans Labyrinth-esque urban fantasy vibe playing in the background throughout!

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

Not necessarily FAERIES but more of mischievous and distrustful woodland folk - and also forest gods. Very heavily steeped in early colonial America era folk horror vibes... if you love media like Robert Eggers' The VVitch then you will ADORE this book! Also Brom's accompanying artwork is so, so beautiful! This is honestly such a perfect fall-time read once Halloween season rolls around.

Legendborn Cycle series by Tracy Deonn

Ok no faeries but... mixes classic Arthurian legends with southern Black beliefs while also telling an epic urban fantasy story centering on themes of grief, trauma, and prejudice. So no fae, but LOTS of great urban fantasy vibes (which I mean... if you're looking for more series to put on your shelf instead of Harry Potter......) Just... Please... just... this series... it's so GOOD!! IDK what else to add that hasn't been said about this series!

Direwood by Catherine Yu

Once again, not necessarily faeries in this book but instead vampires that have a very fae-like quality about them! (as well as blood-hungry butterflies and caterpillars hee-hee) The story as a whole feels like a whimsical fever dream that is STEEPED in tasty Gothic vibes! It sort of has the feeling of being in a late '90s/early '00s Goth music video.

Like Falling Stars by Avalon Roselin (@roselin-books-official)

A story about a girl who's forgotten her past and comes to develop a sweet friendship with a brooding ice faerie prince, and is brimming with so many cozy fantasy vibes!! Also all the fae characters in this novel are so colorful and lively, and they're all very heavily tied to elements and the seasons. Also ALSO!! The main relationship focuses primarily on platonic love as opposed to romantic, and is just as endearing! A perfect cozy winter/fall-time read.

Netvor: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by @rosesnwater

Both a completed novel and an in-progress webcomic available to read on Tapas and Webtoons. Again, another story where major themes center on storytelling and fairytales, but also recovering from trauma and grief! There are so, so many classic faerie vibes, and even featuring pinnacle figures from classic fae lore like the Goblin Market, and it manages to feel equal parts nostalgic and unique in its use of faerie lore!

Dandies in Danger podcast by @dandiesindanger

A table-top RPG podcast instead of a novel! It features four queer men that are dragged into a world of fae and horror, all while set against the backdrop of Regency era London. It starts as a VERY eerie fae mystery (featuring figures like Titania and Oberon), but it slowly becomes a dark, horror historical-fantasy, and it's great! Also art by the podcast's creators is so good!

So these are the recs I have to offer for now!! As always, feel free to add more recommendations!!!💛

#jojo reads #book recs #book recommendations #readers of tumblr #anti sjm #anti sarah j maas

[judesmoonbeauty]

Contains Spoilers for Ellis' Route (His Tragic End in Particular)

*This is just a personal fun rant and little bit of word salad*

You know I was a little disappointed when I learned how they correlated Ellis' tragic end with his fairytale.

So, in his MLE, Roger tells the MC that he is fated to be cut down and die at the hands of justice. Now, while I adore Ellis and wouldn't want him to die, it's actually a fitting tragic end for his curse - especially for the sins he's committed. I mean, think about it, my guy kills people like he's dusting his bookshelf.

What irritated me was that Roger says it's based off the Prince from his fairytale hacking away at the briar thorn hedge in the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. (That's Disney's version and that's disappointing imo.) I was hoping that they'd stick to Brother's Grimm version of the fairytale since it's so short (literally like 2 pages long), and so vague that they missed an opportunity to create something original.

Just an FYI, in Bros Grimm version of the fairytale, the briar thorns turn into beautiful flowers and peel away of their own accord for the Prince so he can enter the castle to awaken the princess. Quoting from the fairytale:

"When the prince drew near the hedge of thorns, it was changed into a hedge of beautiful large flowers, which parted and bent aside to let him pass, and then closed behind him in a thick hedge."

True, that's not very tragic for the thorns and it's a rather happy ending, so I understand why the writers may have struggled to turn this into a tragic ending, and thus borrowed from Disney's version.

Still, what I appreciate about the lack of detail from Bros Grimm was that it doesn't explicitly say what happened to the giant flower hedge after the prince awakened the princess, & they got married. All it says is that once the prince entered the castle, the flower closed up behind him.

So then, what happened to the giant flower hedge after that? Did they burn it down? Did they hack it down? They must've done something if they were to ever leave the castle again, OR was this an after effect of the 13th wisewoman's curse, trapping them inside forever?

Now, call me crazy, but I feel like that could have some potential in terms of Ellis' curse of being bound by sin and his happiness being linked to binding/ensnaring those for an eternity in their happiest moment by killing them. I mean you've woken up from a 100 year rest and got hitched to a prince who risked his life to save you, who wouldn't be happy about that in a fairytale?

I shouldn't expect much from Cybird and overall, I do like how they utilize certain aspects of Bros Grimm, especially with Jude being the 13th fairy (or wise-woman), but still I guess as someone with an active imagination, it's a tiny let down, and I guess I care about it so much because Sleeping Beauty has always been my favorite fairytale since I was a little girl.

Well, my mini dissertation is complete, I haven't done something like this in a while, as usual, it's just for fun.

#Ikevil #Ikevil Ellis #Ciele's Rambles

[bestworstcase]

Sooo, I've been going through some of your posts, reading up on your personal opinions on certain characters I like. I'm trying to understand why you think certain things, so sorry if I come off as rude at any point. There's likely some posts I've missed lol

Uhhh, I'll be the first to admit that I don't agree with most, if not all of your takes, but regardless I find your train of thought pretty interesting cause you do make a few points I agree with.

One thing I wanna ask is- why do you see Ozpin as someone who's a needlessly paranoid religious zealot that doesn't understand Salems point of view and is demonizing her for basically no reason?

I've probably bastardized your opinion somewhere in my attempt to paraphrase it, but I'm really curious since your opinion is pretty much the exact opposite of mine lol.

Feel free to ignore the tangent I'm gonna go on, I just want to share my opinions and debate a little (I need a little mental stimulation lol).

Personally, I honestly don't see Oz as a religious zealot, or as someone who follows the GoL unquestionably. His first reaction to the GoL offering him his task is to say- "No." Oz, thinking Salem is dead, does not care about what the GoL wants or needs from him. And when Oz takes his task (which imo he was manipulated into by the GoL) and reincarnates, he immediately ignores the GoL's incredibly vague warning and goes looking for Salem. Not only that, but when he's asked by Ruby if he has a plan to defeat Salem/unite humanity, he says he doesn't. Plus, he actively refers to his immortality as a curse, despite the GoL not framing it that way. Oz deems his task impossible, and has thus given up on it. Imho, none of this says that he unquestionably follows the Gods. Maybe he had more faith in the beginning, but by referring to his immortality a curse, he's basically insulting the GoL's task. Oz isn't as vindictive or as hateful towards them as Salem is (at least not yet, with v9 and all), but imo he's definitely not fond of them, or at least doesn't hold them in such high regard anymore. The only reason why he continued with his task in the first place is because he was already there with Salem. He doesn't exactly have a choice now, and now he's given up with it, just trying to keep the peace. And, if Jinn is as unreliable as a narrator as you say and the lost fable is from Oz's perspective, it paints the Brothers as petty and manipulative and changing their mind at the drop of a hat. The same is true in the fairytales (which I need to read in full, I currently only know a wiki summary so my knowledge is limited, I won't lie), which Ozpin helps create. I really don't think these things would exist if Oz worshipped them so thoroughly and unquestionably. It's very likely he sees them as petty and manipulative brothers whose fights result in needless death.

I'd talk more, but I don't want to make this ask too long 😅 I think your perspective is interesting, even though I don't agree with it. If/when you answer this, is it okay if I reblog so I can share my own perspective more? It's fine if not, I just like debating (in a friendly, respectful way ofc) different points like this. I really enjoy Oz as a character. He's far from perfect but I think he gets a bad rep, some of it just being different perspectives and others being completely unfair. No one can agree on him so I have fun reading lol

you’re fine—& if you want to rb with your own thoughts feel free.

to start with ozpin’s paranoia, aside from the obvious factor that he explicitly does not trust anyone in his own inner circle and justifies keeping secrets on the grounds that every ally is a betrayal waiting to happen: there is zero evidence that salem has been waging a sustained campaign against him ever since the collapse of the ozlem kingdom. 

in the lost fable, ozma sees two beowolves attacking his settlement and assumes that salem must have sent them: jinn implies that he sees her hand behind every grimm, hence “her presence was always felt.” 

but… not every grimm in the world is under salem’s control. we know this. the grimm that attack the argus express are not hers—they’re wild grimm drawn to the relic. salem had no knowledge of where the relic was or that oz had reincarnated until hazel told her. similarly, the leviathan that attacks argus later is attracted by cordovin (the WOR episode on grimm implies that grimm are drawn to violence and violent emotion specifically). she didn’t send the grimm of mountain glenn to vale; she sent cinder to kill a child on international television to incite mass hysteria that attracted grimm in huge numbers. and during her siege of atlas, it’s noted repeatedly that salem’s forces have not advanced, but wild stragglers are trickling into mantle, drawn by the fear in the crater.

so ozma, in assuming that salem is the mastermind orchestrating every grimm attack in the world, wildly overestimates her actual influence and blames her for the natural behavior of the grimm. 

at the same time, over this period of time between their kingdom collapsing and the beginning of the story, ozma has been phenomenally successful in hiding salem’s existence from the world and erasing her from history. there used to be legends about her everywhere—the witch in the woods who commanded dark powers among the beasts and monsters—and those are gone. before ruby revealed her existence to the world, no one had the slightest idea that she existed. 

the only way for ozma to bury her like that is if salem herself did not do anything to draw attention to herself and stayed very far away from civilization. ozma is just one person, and there are significant gaps in his presence and influence whenever he dies and reincarnates. there is no way he could have kept salem a secret if she periodically razed his cities to the ground or made overtures to groups like the white fang on a regular basis. what she’s done in the story isn’t a pattern of behavior: salem calls the fall of beacon her first move.

and then in v9? this happens:

SUMMER: You know how Ozpin gets. Mystery after mystery… TAIYANG: And when it turns out to be yet another run-of-the-mill patrol, it’ll be— BOTH: “I always preferred discretion!”

during summer’s time as a huntress, ozpin regularly sent her and her teammates on Urgent Top Secret Missions on short notice in the dead of night only for them to turn out to be… nothing. yet another run-of-the-mill patrol. ozpin was fighting a war that salem didn’t start to dignify with her participation until she met summer rose.

<- paranoid behavior.

but the real uh, meat of this is the zealotry.

to be clear, i think that before all the tragedy, both salem and ozma were religious and had faith in the brothers—i’ve written plenty about salem’s religiosity in the lost fable so i won’t belabor that point, but she believed in the gods until they shattered her faith by, you know, condemning her to eternal suffering because she worshipped both of them. and i see no reason to think that ozma didn’t have the same faith. the same flowers that salem brings as an offering to the god of light are hung up on the walls of their home; this was a religious household. 

so. when the god of light wakes him up, ozma believes what light tells him without question—by which i mean, he literally does not ask questions. light says that humankind will rise again, a mere fraction of what their predecessors were, and that they if they are not changed when the brothers return, they will be judged irredeemable and obliterated. ozma does not question the truth or rightness of this premise. he’s frightened and sorrowful, but he doesn’t question the god of light’s implication that humankind, as it is now, does not deserve to exist and needs redemption. 

his refusal is not predicated on a rejection of the mandate itself, and he’s very polite and respectful about it: “i’m sorry, but that world just isn’t as dear to me without her. if i may, i’d like to return to the afterlife to see salem.” ozma does not want to be the one to do this—but he accepts without question the idea that someone must, and he deliberately leaves the door open for the god of light to command him to do it (“if i may”). he’s a religious man; he’s prepared to do what his god asks of him, even as he hopes he that he won’t have to.

(the god of light absolutely manipulated him—and he used ozma’s faith, ozma’s belief in light’s benevolence and just nature, to do it.)

and once ozma reincarnates, he actually does heed the warning the god of light gave him: jinn notes that he travels for years, hearing rumors about “the witch” wherever he goes, before he gives in and decides that “he needed to see what she had become.” the god of light told him that the woman he loved was gone, and what was left of her would only bring him pain, and he believed that because, again, he had no reason not to…

…until he reunited with salem. that is when ozma began to experience doubts, because while salem had physically transformed, she was still herself. still the woman he loved. she still loved him. she hadn’t changed; they rebuilt her cottage together and lived happily. and that made him uncomfortable, because it cast doubt onto everything else the god of light had said to him. if light was wrong (or lying) about salem, what else did he lie about?

“though time passed and all seemed well, ozma’s conversation with the god of light still lingered in his mind. he had found happiness, but humanity seemed more divided than ever…”

the stakes could not be higher; the fate of the entire world is on ozma’s shoulders. in his heart of hearts, he knows salem, he wants to believe salem, but… if he trusts her and he’s wrong, the world will be condemned to annihilation. so he’s torn. he can’t stop worrying about it. how could the god of light be wrong? why would his god lie to him? but he’s happy with salem. but the world seems more divided than ever and it’s his responsibility to fix it. what’s the truth?

ozma is an intensely anxious person. he thinks fear is the one truly universal experience because he himself is afraid all the time. in the lost fable, he’s scared of the happiness he finds with salem because he cannot. stop. thinking. about the god of light saying “man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence.” but he’s also too scared to tell salem the truth, or ask her for help, because the god of light also implicitly warned him that she was damned. he can’t bring himself to leave her, but he also can’t bring himself to believe her, and if she is damned then he wants to save her, too, not just the world.

so he carefully raises “humanity is divided” as a problem he would like to solve, without giving her any context, and when she answers “we can do that!” he decides to just… go along with her first suggestion in the hope that he can eventually ease her into accepting the rest of the divine mandate. because he loves her. because he’s terrified of losing her, and his faith in the god of light is in conflict with his love, and he tries desperately to square that circle by redeeming her.

which fails, because salem’s faith in the brothers shattered long ago and she sees them clearly as the monstrous tyrants they truly were—so she rejects the mandate entirely and asks ozma to reject it with her.

here is the part where my interpretation of ozma depends heavily on my interpretation of salem, because:

i do not think salem was proposing genocide; i think by “replace them” she meant “replace the gods who demand redemption,” in accordance with her longstanding ambition of overthrowing the brothers, and

i think ozma knew that.

frankly, in my opinion, this is the most charitable possible interpretation of what ozma does when salem holds out her hand because HE HESITATES. he looks at her hand, frowning, and then his eyes flick downward and to the side as his expression crumbles into indecision. ozma wants to take her hand. he wants to stay with her. so either salem said “let’s kill everyone!” and ozma a) seriously considered it for a moment and b) did not challenge that idea or demand an explanation from her, or… salem made her point clumsily but both she and ozma understood what she meant, and what she meant was “nothing the god of light told you matters anymore, the brothers aren’t here, why should we spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could make a paradise without the gods, like we planned?”

(since you’ve not read the fairytale anthology, i’ll note that “what they could never be” is a paraphrase of the closing lines of the shallow sea: “And the descendants of the Humans who turned away from our god’s great gift have always carried envy in their hearts. To this day, they resent us for reminding them of what they are not and what they never can be.” just as ozpin uses fairytales to make sense of his life and ease people into his conspiracy, i think salem quoted from this old oral tradition to express her opinion of the brothers; like the faunus in the story, she chose to leap into magical waters and was transformed into something new, and she believes that remnant has the potential to be the paradise the “old gods” failed to achieve. she’s implying that the brothers are envious of remnant and resent these humans—and her—for reminding them of their failures.) 

then… you know, they murder each other and kill their children and raze their own kingdom to the ground. and ozma wakes up behind somebody else’s eyes, again. he sacrificed everything and it shattered him and now he has nothing left except the mandate.

was it worth it?

the answer is no. the answer is that this world isn’t as dear to him without salem, and if the only way to save the world is to lose her, he can’t do it. he doesn’t want to. until the end is his song. “to live free or die, it’s all the same/the enemy was right, there’s no reclaiming/in waves of shame/we’re desperate to make amends/but through a simple soul we lie complacent”—like. he knows salem is a person. he knows she’s right about the brothers. he wants to make amends, but he doesn’t believe he can, because the man fucking despises himself. 

in his commentary on ‘the infinite man,’ ozpin describes the man—himself—as both a hero and a fool who made such grievous mistakes that to some he is a villain, and suggests that he may not be worthy of forgiveness. in ‘the girl in the tower,’ the character of ozma is simply called “the hero,” and in ozpin’s commentary he says that “if you look far enough ahead […] heroes may turn out to be villains.” he isn’t talking about salem. he’s talking about himself. he sees himself as the villain in her story, and taken as a whole ‘fairytales of remnant’ reads like a tortured apology to her more than anything; he closes with a story about humans breaking the sun and creating the moon, and in his commentary: “[people] not only replaced the sun, a celestial gift from the all-powerful god of light, but also improved upon it through their own ingenuity.”

he thinks it’s too late. if he could go back and do it again, he would take her hand, but the truth is that he didn’t, and he doesn’t believe she will ever forgive him. no second chances. nothing he can do to make amends. ozma’s mindset is that he made his choice and now he has to live with that forever.

and it’s unbearable. it’s torture. 

after everything that happened, ozma clings to zealotry as a coping mechanism. in his heart of hearts, he has no real commitment to the mandate: he’s distorted it to be about salem. ozma sought the relics so he could use them to “destroy salem.” jinn told him he couldn’t; he proceeded to devote countless lifetimes to fighting an (imaginary) war against salem. he has No Plan. beacon academy is modeled after her father’s castle and ozma put his office in her tower! in her prison!!

his inner circle is a cult dedicated to the god of light and he built the academies as fortresses to safeguard his reliquaries forever and ever while he fights to protect the people of remnant from enemies like “panic” and “division” whom he represents with her face, her name, and the way he truly feels about All Of This is trapped. it’s been so long that he’s convinced himself that his lies are true—that she’s an inhuman monster who craves only death and revels in destruction—but he built her tower and locked himself inside.

ozpin lies to everyone. even himself. especially himself. the intensity of his guilt and regret drove him to weave an elaborate fantasy casting salem as the villain and himself as the fool destined to be her enemy, and he clings to it desperately because he has to believe that. he has to believe that she lied to him, too. he has to believe she’s the one who manipulated him. if it isn’t all her fault, if she isn’t the Great Evil, then his own choices have no justification.

the lying becomes so habitual, so ingrained that he lies without even thinking. why didn’t he tell the kids that the lamp might attract grimm? when they demand an answer on the train, ozpin freezes. he doesn’t have a real answer. he just… withheld vital information because that’s what he always does. a reflex.

the zealotry is of a piece with the lying. he had faith in the god of light—and he still believes that the gods will condemn and destroy the world if they’re summoned, and i think he believes it’s futile to fight them and that if salem tries they’ll crush her again, so he truly does not want her to try and he’s not lying when he claims she’ll bring about the end, because he believes that’s the only possible outcome of rebellion—and he believes himself to be beyond forgiveness. this is all he has, and the only way he can cope with that is… the fairytales. palliative fantasy. a story about a monster and the man destined to fight her. lifetime after lifetime until the lies seemed almost true.

ozma’s trauma is religious in nature. he’s a religious man who lost his faith a long time ago because his god is using him to punish salem and he hates himself because he fell for it, and now he thinks it’s too late. she’ll never forgive him. he can’t see a way out, so he clings ever harder to the mandate because it’s all he has and it gives him a shred of purpose in being her fated enemy. all he wants, all he’s everwanted, is to be with her, and if he hadn’t believed in his god when all of this began, they would have lived happily in her cottage forever.

all of which is to say, yeah, ozma does not hold the gods in high regard. his obedience does not come from reverence or love—he’s fucking terrified of them. the main difference between him and salem in their view of the gods is that she believes they can be resisted and beaten, and he does not. zealotry doesn’t require that he think the god of light is good or just, only that he obey. he’s still under light’s thumb even as it kills him inside, and he can’t escape until he stops lying to himself about what salem is.

bc she’s… not a monster. she didn’t lie to him, and she certainly didn’t manipulate by not… being able to read his mind when he hid things from her. she made it clear from the start that she wanted to replace the brothers and create a new, better world without them, and in the present all of her rage is directed at his deception and his cowardice in obeying the gods. what he did is not unforgivable. he can make amends, if he finds the courage to try. there is a door he can open to leave the tower. the first step is letting himself believe it’s possible. 

(this is why it matters that he asks the kids to forgive him and give him a second chance in V8. ozma has never forgiven himself for anything and for lifetimes he’s believed himself to be irredeemable; not just recognizing the possibility but actively choosing to ASK for forgiveness was so important, and so necessary.)

#‘trust love’ is About Him

[thesunshineriptide]

I was thinking, what if while at Y/N's house the boys end up finding the Grimm Brothers/Original stories they're based off. Like the original Snow White or Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. And Y/N admitting that they were more familiar with those versions than the Disney version was expecting to be skinned alive when they first arrived in Twisted Wonderland

I’m so so fucking pumped for this ask because I’m a huge NERD and I know the original stories so well. Fairytales and folk tales and mythology are one of my special interests you cut straight to my heart thank you anon. Also you didn’t specify what universe this is so I’m putting it in the our world au and if you want me to do the other characters I will GLADLY do them I adore these. ++ I will probably do Idia reacting to Greek myths sometime soon but my brain is honestly kinda mush and narrowing down just one myth is a little hard but I’ll get back to it

This Isn’t How Our Story Ends

Characters: Riddle, Trey, Leona, Ruggie, Azul, Jade, Floyd, Kalim, Jamil, Vil, Rook, Idia, Malleus, Lilia

Warning: the original tales of each story are dark. As such, there will be mentions of mature topics such as death, poisoning, drowning, murder, insanity, and more. Read at your own discretion.

Cw// spoilers for chapters 1-5, swearing, dark topics and themes.

“What’s this?” He had asked innocently, holding up the book in question.

“Huh? Oh, that’s…” Yuu thought of how to explain this, “Well, it’s a story. Kinda. Um…well…”

Hamlet

It’s fairly well known that the story of Hamlet is the origin of The Lion King (although interestingly enough it seems there’s a real life historical parallel with the story of Sundiata Keita) thus Leona and Ruggie’s interests in this particular story may wain. Shakespeare is dreadfully dry at times and best performed live, which means…Movie night! For this particular iteration I would recommend watching a live taping rather than a film adaptation because otherwise you just miss out on like, half the important shit. Also if you haven’t read or seen hamlet there’s a lovely novelized adaptation that actually adds MORE content and makes it very fun

Leona sat back as he watched the actors take the final bow. Ruggie was nervously sitting beside him, shifting from side to side like he couldn’t quite get comfortable.

“They all died?”

“Yep.” Yuu responded dispassionately.

“And the uncle…” Leona started, eyes looking over everything in the room except Yuu and Ruggie, “In the, uh…”

“That’s the king of beasts, in your world.” They said, “It’s…yeah.”

“He killed for the throne?” Ruggie asked, somewhat surprised.

“I mean, Leona tried to kill Malleus for a game, I’m not sure why you’re surprised.”

“I wasn’t gonna kill ‘im.” Leona grumbled, “Just put him out of commission for a while. Not tryina start a war or anything…”

“Okay, you attempted to maybe kill him.”

“That’s not- whatever.” He sighed, “So, I’m the uncle. Is Ruggie the guy who got stabbed? The…sheriff? Or whatever?”

“I guess in this analogy, yes.”

“Gross.” Ruggie wrinkled his nose, “I’d rather be the girl.”

“Ophelia?”

“Is that the one that drowned?”

“Yes?” Yuu worried.

“Yeah, her. Anything to get away from this analogy.”

Leona snickered and ruffled Ruggie’s hair, earning him a harsh smack to the forearm which he ignored.

“Did the king of beasts have his own sheriff? According to your world?”

“Uh, he had the hyenas. And Zazu, I guess, but none were exactly loyal.”

“Did the king of beasts kill his nephew?” Ruggie blurted out.

“Nah, but he tried. Instead, the nephew killed him.”

Leona wrinkled his nose, joking in a deadpan tone, “Guess it’s time to off the little furball back home.” When neither Yuu nor Ruggie laughed, he frowned, “You know I’m joking, right? I wouldn’t kill my nephew.”

“You tried to kill me.” Ruggie said.

“And me.” Yuu agreed.

“That was ONE TIME-“

The Little Mermaid

Fun facts the little mermaid was written by Hans Christian Andersen and depending on the historical lens you like to apply was maybe gay. Also, the sea witch doesn’t have a name and doesn’t have eels which means Azul and the twins will be sorely disappointed. Anyway the original story is an angst fest because Hans was an emo at his core and the princess dies at the end

Azul stared at the pages of the book as he slowly closed it. He adjusted his glasses, looking to the twins as he finished. The two looked sick, wearing grim expressions. Floyd stared to his shoes while Jade looked to Azul.

The Octavinelle dorm leader cleared his throat, then took a sip of his water. After a few moments, he turned to Yuu.

“This was a deeply unpleasant experience.”

Yuu snorted a little and nodded, “Fair enough. It’s honestly what I thought was gonna happen to me when I made that deal with you.”

All three of them looked shocked and stared at Yuu like they’d grown three heads.

“Yuu…” Jade started tentatively.

“You know turning to sea foam is like, the worst punishment you can get in the Coral Sea, right?” Floyd cut in, eyes blunt.

Yuu’s expression dropped. They turned and checked each of the trio to see if they were joking and…no, no that’s real.

“What?”

Jade stared at them in deep contemplation, before piping up, “I suppose you wouldn’t know that, it isn’t something the kingdom advertises, per say…”

“But it’s something almost every merman knows.” Azul finished, “This version of the sea witch is…cruel. Unusually so, to sentence a mermaid to that hell.”

“And a princess, nonetheless.” Jade agreed, “Incredibly vile.”

“‘M real glad that’s now our real history. Just somethin the land folk made up, although it’s still rude.” Floyd said, taking the book, “It’s a real stupid deal anyway, the sea witch didn’t even get anything from that. And she didn’t even have any eels!”

“Maybe it was a different sea witch? I dunno man, it’s honestly kinda what I thought I’d be in for.”

“Is that why you were so fearful when we intervened with your proceedings?” Jade asked, looking somewhat amused, “Prefect, we wouldn’t be that cruel.”

“I mean, we could.” Floyd leaned in, teeth sparkling white as the sun shone off them. He could have given a lens flare. “But we like you, so we won’t.”

“We couldn’t be that cruel.” Azul said firmly, “The fate of becoming sea foam is certainly no joke. We wouldn’t dream of it.”

Yuu was a bit flushed in their embarrassment, turning away to mumble something.

“What was that?” Azul hummed

“I said I feel stupid.”

“Sorry, one more time, I couldn’t hear you.” Jade grinned, leaning in closer.

“I Said,” they turned toward the trio, “That now I feel stupid.”

The three just smirked smugly back and Yuu felt like maybe they wished they’d turned to sea foam (not really)

1001 Arabian Nights

The original story of Aladdin and his magic lamp was honestly very different from the Disney film. Beyond some basic plot points (princess in a castle being in love with a street boy, a genie, etc) the story is virtually different. The main apparent thing being that there’s not one, but TWO genies, and the evil schemer is a wizard pretending to be Aladdin’s uncle, not a vizier taking advantage of the king. On the whole, I think Jamil and Kalim would be interested but wholly unimpressed. Oh, also a lot of murder.

Jamil hummed as he looked at the last page, tilting his head to the side as he thought.

“Aladdin doesn’t…seem like a good person.” Kalim said, staring at the book Jamil was holding. “He just…killed someone?”

“Granted, it was to save the princess,” Jamil began, looking to Kalim for only a moment. He gazed back down, “I can understand something like that. However…”

“There’s a lot of…slavery in this story.” Kalim finished, messing with his fingers, “I don’t like that.”

“The Asim Family-“

“I would never want you to do something you don’t want to.” Kalim said solemnly.

Jamil went silent, looking out the window. He tapped his finger against the edge of the book, lost in thought. “I still do, though. There are plenty of things I do for you that I don’t like.”

There was a silence as Yuu looked between them. Kalim looked hurt, and ashamed. Jamil looked…carefully put together. But deeply uncomfortable.

Yuu cautiously reached forward, taking the book from Jamil, who didn’t acknowledge it but did allow them to take it.

“I’m quite interested in this Roc bird that’s mentioned,” Jamil said suddenly, “It is to be the master of all genies?”

“Maybe it commands Azul.” Yuu joked, thinking back to Jamil’s words just before he’d overblotted.

Jamil glowered in return, but this did earn a laugh from Kalim.

The vice housewarden turned to contemplate the coffee table rather deeply, then murmured, “This tale does ring similar to our history, but rather different. It’s…odd. Like they were cut from the same cloth.”

Yuu shrugged, “It’s just a story. Nobody really got hurt.” They assured when Kalim looked momentarily uncomfortable again.

Snow White

The Grimm telling of Snow White is also fairly similar to the Disney telling, with the exception of the Evil Queen being WAY more persistent in the murder thing. She attempts to kill Snow three times. The first by cinching her corset so tight that she passed out, but it was unable to kill her. She tries again by gifting her a poisoned hair comb, which again fails to kill her. The third time, the poisoned apple, is the charm. She bites the apple, goes into a coma, glass coffin blah blah blah. Prince finds her coffin, decides she’s a real babe and takes her and the coffin home with him. On the journey back, one of the prince’s servants trips and knocks the coffin into something, which somehow manages to dislodge the piece of apple in the princess’s throat and bring her back to life. Yay! Then she tries to kill her again, fails, and is punished to dance in red hot slippers until she dies. Yay…?

Vil and Rook sat on opposite sides of the couch. Rook was staring pointedly at the wall while Vil was staring directly at the hunter.

“It’s quite interesting-“

“Not a word out of you.” Vil cut him off, turning his attention to his nails instead.

Yuu sat across from them, snapping the book shut to put it away, “Maybe this wasn’t a great idea.”

“You think?”

Rook looked like he wanted to say something, a finger up as though he were conducting an invisible choir.

“Rook Hunt. Keep your mouth shut, you fucking traitor.”

“You said you wished for me to be true in my heart!” He defended.

Yuu took this as the moment to leave the room, clutching the book close,

“Spudling, where are you going? Come back here.”

Yuu squeaked nervously before coming back to stand in front of him, a sheepish smile on their face, “Hmm?”

Vil looked them up and down, before leaning forward to straighten Yuu’s clothes, “Spudling, is this why you were so nervous when Trappola and Spade ate that apple tart?”

“I honestly kinda thought you killed them.” Yuu admitted with a titter.

Vil’s eyebrows shot up as he glanced to make eye contact with them, “Do you think I’m so cruel?”

“I didn’t know what to think.” They said honestly, hands reaching to stop Vil’s from moving, “All I knew was that Rook calls you the king of poisons, and my friends suddenly collapsed after eating apples. Two and two together lead to poisoning.”

Rook began to laugh loudly, then coughed to cover it and continued to not look at Vil.

Vil frowned, “I would never kill anyone, Spudling-“

“Except Neige.”

“NEIGE KNOWS WHAT HE FUCKING DID-“

Sleeping Beauty

Honestly this one is too graphic for me to explain in detail but let’s just say that the prince is even worse in this one than in the Disney version. Consent isn’t even a question for him he does not care. Also the cure in this version was kind of similar to snow white’s, in which a fragment of the spindle is stuck in Briar Rose’s finger and once it is dislodged she’s freed from the curse. Seriously though, wouldn’t recommend looking this one up to anyone who’s faint of heart. It’s seriously gross.

Malleus and Lilia don’t seem to surprised as you finish the tale. In fact, they don’t even bother to keep talking about it, and it’s totally not because the author of this doesn’t want to get into how absolutely disgusting it is that the 100 year old 16 year old has two kids that she definitely didn’t want, or how fucking gross the prince is to do what he did, it’s because they’re old as fuck and already kinda knew.

Lilia just goes back to setting your kitchen on fire while Malleus decides he’s going to read every other fairy story except this one because this one sucked and his grandma didn’t even turn into a dragon :/

Alice in Wonderland

Strictly speaking, the 1950’s animated film of Alice in Wonderland is not all that different from its inspiration. Most story beats are faithful to the original, with the exception of tweedle dee and tweedle dum, which actually appear in the sequel Alice through the looking glass. It appears that within Twisted Wonderland’s universe, while there is some misinterpretation of the Queen of Hearts herself, the information given in the film is well known based off of the comments given in the ‘chats’ with each character. It is unknown whether the Tim burton films have any bearing on twisted wonderland’s history, though based off of Riddle’s design and character it appears it may have been a source of inspiration at the least. All of this is to say that none of this particular story would be much of a surprise to any of the characters, as for them it’s very grounded in reality. This isn’t to say there wouldn’t be a surprise, though….

Riddle had been quietly sitting on the couch reading a book for about an hour now. It seemed as though he was nearing the end, and he looked both confused and enraptured by it.

“What’s that?” Yuu asked.

Riddle looked up, and with a carefully crafted blank face he held up the book so they could read the cover.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

“Ah,” Yuu said nervously, “Good read?”

Riddle tilted his head, “You never told me there were stories of twisted wonderland in your world.”

“That’s cause it’s not twisted wonderland.” Yuu defended, “That’s just regular wonderland.”

“The difference being?” Riddle asked, tone taking on a biting edge.

“It isn’t twisted?” They tried, shrugging, “I didn’t think it would interest you, honestly. It’s a lot of the same stuff as history class.”

Trey took this EXACT moment to walk into the room. He took one look at Riddle’s twitching eyebrow and realized that, oh shit, time to intervene. “What’s going on here?” He asked tentatively.

“This- ah…” Riddle took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself, “This world has stories of Wonderland. Yuu neglected to mention this, in my opinion, rather imperative information.”

Yuu shrugged, “It’s just a children’s story. What could be so important?”

“Perhaps the fact that someone travels to and from Wonderland?” Riddle bit back, “Or perhaps that if your world has information on ours, then it isn’t fiction?”

Yuu blanched for a moment before calming themself. “Riddle,” they began, frowning, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that. But I have a very…different look on it.”

Riddle raised an eyebrow, urging Yuu to continue. Trey in the midst of this sat down beside Riddle, taking the book from him.

“This was written by someone named Charles Dodgeson, also known as Lewis Carroll. He wrote this for a trio of girls he used to tutor and babysit.” Yuu began, sitting down on the coffee table in front of Riddle and Trey. “He would often take them on canoe rides and tell them stories, making it up as he went along. He favored one particular girl, named Alice Liddell, and favored to write the story about her.”

Riddle looked unimpressed and confused at the same time, “But-“

“Riddle.” Trey said softly, “Let them continue.”

“Dodgeson was eventually fired by the Liddell family due to what was described as a ‘family affair’, the nature of which was never known. After that, for a bit of money he printed the story and sold it, then made wrote a sequel called ‘through the looking glass’.”

Riddle and Trey sat in silence before Riddle piped up, “Through the Looking Glass?”

“Mhmm.” Yuu said, “Alice returns to wonderland after walking through an enchanted looking glass. The rest of the adventure is similar to the first, changing from moment to moment.”

Riddle stared, fists curled in a ball and shaking. “So there’s a way home?”

Yuu looked surprised, “N-no, Riddle, it’s just a stor-“

“IT’S NOT JUST A STORY!” He cried, “It has to be real, you see that don’t you? You got to our world through a mirror, we got stuck here through one too. So there’s got to be another way back! Alice- Alice is real. She had to have gone….” He began to settle down, eyes filling with unshod tears.

Trey looked between Yuu and Riddle, “He’s right. It…would make sense. And…that’s a pen name, isn’t it? How do we know Alice didn’t write that?”

Yuu looked lost, staring down at the sobbing Riddle, who was murmuring various incoherent thoughts all in a long string.

“I’m so, so sorry…” Yuu said quietly, “We…I didn’t….I’m sorry. We can look, okay? I’ll do some research. We’ll get you home…”

#twisted wonderland #twst headcanons #twisted wonderland headcanons #azul ashengrotto #twst #jade leech #floyd leech #twst mc #riddle rosehearts #leona kingscholar #ruggie bucchi #trey clover #kalim al asim #jamil viper #malleus draconia #lilia vanrouge #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #pomefiore #heartslabyul #savanaclaw #diasomnia #scarabia #octavinelle

[zinfindoll]

Swan Song | M. Draconia — 01. bleeding over

[ prologue | index | next chapter ]

Rating: T CW: use of [Y/n], she/her pronouns for reader, swearing

There was no way you or Yuna could go to sleep after that, leading to the two of you going to a 24-hour café that was by your dorms.  Neither of you talked for a moment, and you were content with just sipping your favorite comfort drink as you waited for Yuna to snap out of whatever daze she was in.

It took a few minutes, but finally her eyes snapped to you as she took a sip of hot coffee.  "Just...  What the hell was that?"

"Huh?"

The question caught you off guard, and you waited for Yuna to elaborate.  She didn't keep you waiting.

"Back at the dorm, it was like you knew what was going on with the mirror.  So, what — are you in some kind of cult?  What the hell did I see?"

"I have no clue because you haven't said anything.  So what did you see?"  More importantly — was it that creepy Mickey Mouse that you had once seen, or one of your friends?  You paused, then tacked on: "And no, I was not in a cult."

Yuna exhaled through her nose.  While you could understand that she was shaken up, a tired sort of impatience was welling up in your stomach.  For six years had you tried to look for some proof that Twisted Wonderland had been real.  It's not that you cared about proving to others that it was — you couldn't care less what they thought or believed.  However, as much as you were glad to be in the comfort of your world...  You missed Twisted Wonderland.  You missed your friends, the crazy shenanigans you all got into, and even Grim.  You had written off the possibility of going back years ago...

But what if it was still possible?

"I don't know," Yuna took another long sip from her cup.  "It was some tall, dark, shadowy creature.  I couldn't make out any features, except for red eyes, and horns that curled outwards."  She shuddered.  "It was only there for a second.  When I turned the light on, it was gone, and the mirror was..."

That didn't sound familiar to you.  Red eyes and horns?  It didn't sound like anybody you had known.  Hell, it might not even be from Twisted Wonderland.  If two worlds already existed, what's to say that more alternate universes and worlds didn't exist?  Not that you wanted to entertain that possibility.  You did not have the mental energy to get involved with a third world.  What was next?  Pixar rip-offs instead?  Some messed up Grimm Fairytales universe?

But then, how did that explain the blot?  If the mirror really was leaking blot, that was...

". . . Well, anyways."  Yuna cleared her throat.  "Not to pry into personal stuff, but does this have to do with anything about you disappearing all those years ago?"

Your eyebrows shot up.  "You knew about that?"

"You went through three roommates in one semester, so, yeah, I did some digging.  Just never brought it up because, well, I figured it was traumatic.  Or something."

"Well, thanks, then."  Your tone was dry, and you pondered your next words.  Again, you had no clue how to explain this, and there were no promises that Yuna would even believe you.  The brunette wasn't going to let this go, though.  Sigh.  "Look...  It's absolutely batshit insane.  You wouldn't believe me."

Yuna was unimpressed with your feeble excuse.  "I just saw a demon in our mirror which is now bleeding some kind of black substance.  Try me."

Chewing on your lip, you debated your options.  It would be easy to just lie and brush it off.  It was certainly better than having your dormmate think your crazy or, even worse, file to move rooms and leave you stuck with somebody else.  You had very little evidence of Twisted Wonderland outside of your hidden shoebox — just the few scars that littered your body, and the memories you retained.

At the same time, though...  Wouldn't it be relieving to get this off your chest?  Sure, you had your therapist, but she didn't believe you for a second, no matter how she worded it.  While Yuna believing you was slim, there was still a chance...

And no matter how jaded you had become, you still craved for somebody to understand what all you had been through.

Ugh.  Fuck it.  Yuna's the one that's insisting.

"Alright, alright."  You leaned back in your chair, crossing your arms and pursing your lips.  "Not sure where to start, so bare with me..."

Where did you start?  It was certainly too lengthy to start from the very beginning, but perhaps if you just condensed it a little bit it would suffice?

"I guess I'll start with nine years ago..."

══════════════════

Unsurprisingly, it was a lengthy story, even abridged — after all, you spent three years in that world.  You didn't give Yuna a complete play-by-play, but you gave her the rundown.  How you woke up in a coffin, made friends with an egotistical and pyromaniac cat, and proceeded to survive near-death experiences not once, not twice, but nine separate times.  At least.  You didn't tell Yuna about the friends you made, or about the clubs and the more fun experiences, but you told her about blot and overblot, and how it could affect others.

For Yuna's credit, she didn't interrupt you, even as her expression grew more and more incredulous.  By the time you had finished with your "little" rundown, at least an hour and a half had gone by.  You awaited her reaction with crossed arms — judging by her expression, she didn't believe you for a single second.

Honestly, you couldn't blame her.  If the roles were reversed, you would have thought she was delusional as well, but it didn't make the scenario any less frustrating.

Yuna finally shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.  "You have got to be kidding me..."  It came out in a grumble.  "Be for real right now.  Are you fucking with me or something?"

The look you gave her spoke leagues without you needing to open your mouth, and she threw her hands up in the air, on the cusp of disbelief and exasperation.

"Everything you just told me is absolutely insane.  You basically went to some — some Disneyworld-based alternate universe with magic?  And — and — ugh."  She was struggling with getting her thoughts together, and you allowed her a couple of moments, trying to debate on your next move.

Well, I'm already in this deep.

"I have proof.  Back at the dorm.  It's not much, but..."

Yuna scrutinized you for a moment, before relenting.  "Jesus.  Okay."

Your eyebrows raised.  "You're not going to argue anymore???"

"As unbelievable this all is...  I know I saw something in the mirror.  And you saw that stuff dripping from the mirror, too...  I don't fully believe your story, but something is going on."  She took a deep breath, finishing her coffee.  It was her third one.

"Gee.  Thanks."  With a roll of your eyes, you pulled some cash out and left it on the table, enough to cover your drinks and tip.  You'd take her half-hearted belief, even with all the sarcasm you gave your roommate back.  It was baby-steps.

The walk back to your dorm was thankfully quick, shortened by the quick steps you and Yuna took to try and get out of the night time air.  During the middle of your walk, the ground seemed to rumble for a little bit, but it certainly wasn't as bad as the earthquake from earlier, and quite frankly, you and Yuna had bigger problems to deal with right now.  

For better or worse, the mirror looked the same.  You weren't a fan of it leaking blot into your dorm room of all places, but at least nothing was crawling out of it.

You did not voice your worries or thoughts to Yuna.

Checking over it one more time to confirm that the mirror looked okay, you went to grab the shoe box from underneath your bed while Yuna kept a watchful eye on it.

"Hey, does this look like it has more blot...?"

"Probably," you answered absentmindedly as you unlocked your phone.  "Here.  Feel free to go through the photo album."  You shouldn't have anything weird on there, save for some of the memes you stole from your friends back in their world.  Yuna fumbled with the device, and you tensed as she nearly dropped it before she managed to get a grip on it.  Carefully, she started to go through the photo album, and you gauged her expressions.

"No way...  These are all photoshopped, right?" she asked with furrowed eyebrows, although you could tell she hardly believed it herself that they were photoshopped.  Most likely because she had seen your computer graphics skills and, well, they certainly could use work.

"They aren't, but I don't have any other way to prove it," you admitted with a frown.  She seemed to have scrolled over a video; moments later, you heard the obnoxious voice of Ace speak up, yelling for your attention in the video.

Glancing over Yuna's shoulder, you saw how Ace was (poorly) filming it — he had stolen your phone for some reason or another, and had started to harass you, Deuce, Grim, and Jack as you all studied.  It was a short-lived video before Jack had sighed and yanked your phone back, but the short video made your heart ache and yearn for something you knew you would never have again.

You weren't sure what expression was on your face.  You didn't even know you were pulling a face until Yuna called out your name in concern, pursing her lips in thought.  ". . . Look.  I'm sorry," she sighed, scratching the back of her head.  "This is all a lot to swallow.  But whether it's real or not, it's clearly affected you.  I wish...  If all of this is truly real, I hope you can see them again."

The brunette didn't quite seem on board all the way, but she was trying, and you had to give her props for that.

Yuna glanced back over to the mirror, humming.  "You think that could be the key to getting back?"

". . . I don't know," you sighed.  "But honestly, I doubt it's anything good."

"What do we do, then?"

And that was the golden question — what did you guys do?  Throwing it out might do more harm than good, but it's not like you could call the police, either.  You and Yuna exchanged a glance that proved you were both on the same mindset that you didn't have many options right now, and she groaned, throwing her head back.

"This sucks."

And honestly?  You agreed.

══════════════════

The next day, you and Yuna made a bit more of a solid game plan: since the two of you had alternating class schedules, you'd trade off.  Today, she would watch the mirror and keep an eye on it, and you would go to class, and then vice versa.  It was the best option you both had right now while you brainstormed how to deal with this.  Yuna promised to try and do some research via good old Google, but considering you had been trying for years, you weren't too positive she'd get any results.

The first half of your day had been going relatively smooth.  Blotted mirror and your growing anxieties aside, your classes passed by without a hitch, and you were able to swing by the campus store to pick up thick cleaning gloves in case you needed to handle the mirror.  In the mean time, you warned Yuna to not touch the blot at all.

Around 4 in the afternoon during a lecture hall, your phone had started to go off.  Thankfully it was on silent, but you could feel it vibrating insistently in your pocket.  Not wanting to get in trouble, you ignored it — but then it started to ring again, and you quickly excused yourself to go out into the hallway, glancing at the caller I.D.

Yuna C.

. . .

"Hey.  Is everything okay?" you picked it up, not getting a good feeling at her calling.

"Yeah.  Sort of?"  She sounded a bit frazzled.  "The mirror looks the same...ish.  But your phone has been going off like crazy here.  It won't stop ringing."

"My — huh?"

"Your phone!  The one you showed me with all the photos from Wonderland?"

"Oh shit.  I'm on my way right now."

Hanging up on Yuna, you went back into the lecture hall and hastily apologized to the professor, spouting a half-assed lie about some emergency before grabbing your belongings and running out of there.

While the lecture hall wasn't super close to your dorm, you made it there within twenty minutes, something you were certain was a record for yourself if you weren't too preoccupied with what Yuna had told you.

Your phone has been going off like crazy here.

Maybe once upon a time, you would have been excited, but considering it was right by the mirror dripping with blot, you were more scared for Yuna than anything.

Busting into your dorm room, you expected the worst, afraid to see some blot monster in the room, or to see the mirror doused, but it more or less looked the same.  Yuna didn't seem too concerned, instead holding your phone.  When you came into the room, she readily handed it to you.

"Sorry...  Wasn't sure if I should answer it.  Your DMs on MagiGram?  MagiCam?  Have been blowing up.  So have your texts."

She was right, and you noticed how it showed you had one bar of service.  Somehow, you were getting service from Twisted Wonderland.

"Ugh...  I don't have a good feeling about this," you murmured, unlocking the phone.  Unsurprisingly, a majority of the texts and DMs were from Ace, Deuce, and Cater, and even a few from Kalim and surprisingly one from Idia.  They had all apparently gotten the notification that you were online, and you hesitated, debating on who you should send a message to.

Well, you didn't know if anybody got new phone numbers, so you opened the group chat you had with a majority of your friends on MagiCam.

hey guys, i don't know how i'm getting service, but i am. i think something is wrong. i am still in my world, but blot is here and now i can get service again. if you guys get this, i'm afraid it's affecting your world too.

You hesitated, fingers hovering hesitantly before you sent it and added on one more message.

i miss you guys.

You waited impatiently for the messages to send, the shitty service taking forever to go through...

. . . Only for the "FAILED MESSAGE" to appear besides both messages, "NO SERVICE" once more at the top of your phone.

"Damn it!"

In anger, you chucked your phone at the wall, watching it bounce off the wall and onto your bed.  Hot tears pricked your eyes.

You had been so close!  So close, only to have it snatched away again!  You could almost scream in frustration, and you buried your face in your hands, resisting the urge to just scream.  Yuna hovered over you, unsure of what to do.  She seemed awkward, clearly not good at comforting others.  Even if she was, you weren't sure anything she could say would comfort you.

"What do you think it means?" she asked after a second.  You glanced up at her, not quite understanding what she was getting at, and she gestured towards the mirror.  "I mean, first the mirror, and then the phone.  Clearly they're correlated.  And you mentioned you traveled in that other world through a mirror, right?  What if this mirror is like, I don't know...  Some gateway?"

You glanced back at the mirror.  With the amount of blot accumulating, you weren't sure you wanted to attempt stepping through it right now.

"Try bringing the phone over to it?"

Well, it was worth a shot.  Grabbing the phone, you made about two steps before the dorm room started to shake.  Unlike last night, this earthquake was much more sizable, sending you and Yuna toppling to the ground unceremoniously as the items and books off your shelves fell to the floor.

"The mirror!"

Yuna shrieked as the mirror fell off the wall, landing glass down on the wooden floor.  Neither of you could get up for a few seconds, and only when the shaking stopped did the two of you scramble to a stand on shaky legs.

"Is it broken?"

She nudged it with her foot and flipped it over, careful to not touch the blot.  It seemed unharmed, not even a crack on it, but you noticed how the blot was slowly eating away at the floorboards beneath it.  In fact...

"Hey.  Is it just me, or is that way more blot coming out of the mirror?"

It certainly was.  At Yuna's words, you grabbed out the gloves you bought from campus store earlier, giving her a pair.

"We have to get this out of here," you demanded.

Yuna looked pointedly at the floor boards.  "You don't think they'll charge us for that, do you...?"

"Now, Yuna!"

She slipped the gloves on, and the two of you quickly and carefully brought the mirror out of your apartment, blot dripping onto the floors in small droplets, leading a trail until the two of you got outside.

The earthquake had been one of the largest by far.  Car alarms once more were blaring, and the damage of trees was easy to see.  There was a huge crack in the sidewalk that made your heart clench, but you had not time to survey the aftermath.  With the mirror dripping with blot, your first priority was to get it away from anybody else.  The two of you made it to the lawn before dumping the mirror onto the grass, both of you panting.

"Shit.  It's getting worse," Yuna pointed out, almost the entire mirror engulfed and overflowing with blot now.  "What do we do?!"

"I don't know," you replied grimly.  Who did you even call in such a situation?  It's not like the police could do anything!  At the same time, though, clearly you couldn't do nothing.  The blot wasn't stopping any time soon, and your world didn't have magic to combat blot!  You weren't equipped to deal with this!

"Well, we have to do something!" Yuna shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.

What to do, what to do...!

Your phone started to ring.  In irritation, you pulled it out, ready to turn it off silent only to realize which phone it was that was going off.  Without hesitation, you found your thumb pressing the 'answer' button, a familiar face popping up on the screen in terrible pixilation and glitchy quality.

"Ace?!"

#swan song #malleus draconia #malleus x reader #malleus draconia x reader #twisted wonderland #twst fic #twst #zinfic #twenty years later...

[artzychic27]

Inspired by your most recent reblog, I’d love to see Miss Bustier as Miss Frizzle, taking her class on a magic school bus and Nathaniel getting shushed as the Arnold of the group

Hmm… Might I offer Mom!Bustier for this?

Since Mme. Bustier is a literature/history teacher, the school bus, dubbed Bus, takes them back and forward through time, transforms into different vehicles based on the time period, and she wears all sorts of outfits and jewelry with prints and designs inspired by famous historical moments through time

Also, she has a pet chameleon

Mme. Bustier: *Steps into the classroom in a flourish while wearing an Edgar Allen Poe inspired dress* Good morning, everyone!

Marinette: Mme. Bustier, I love that calligraphy-print scarf.

Mme. Bustier: … What scarf?

Nathaniel: *Unwraps himself from around her neck* ‘Sup?

Nathaniel dresses just as eccentrically as his mother, and each of the prints on their outfits give hints for what the field trip shall entail

Nino: Well. We’re all dead.

Kim: Why do you say that?

Nino: *Points to the Mount Vesuvius embroidery on the back of Nathaniel’s jacket*

Kim: Oh… Yeah, we’re dead.

People swear they’ve seen the embroidery and prints on their outfits move

Marinette is living for the quirky outfits, but not so much almost getting nearly boiled alive during one of their field trips

Adrien, however, is loving every second of it and may or may not be slipping field trip ideas into the suggestion box… Like, fifty a week

Mme. Bustier has been teaching Nathaniel how to drive Bus ever since he was five

Nathaniel: Mom! Can I drive?

Mme. Bustier: Sweetie… Knock yourself out!

Nathaniel: Yay! I’m driving them straight to 1492 and yelling, “I see land!” before that bitch, Columbus.

Alya: So, is this normal for you guys?

Juleka: You have no idea.

He loves the Bus and treats them better than his own friends

Nathaniel: *Crying loudly beside Bus who has graffiti on them* NOOOOOO! It should’ve been you! *Points to the Akuma Class*

Alix: Nice.

Also, Miss Frizzle is sapphic. Mme. Bustier is sapphic. You all see the connection

Alix is used to Nathaniel’s eccentrics and just goes along with all of his theatrics and crazy outfits

Marc may or may not have simped for Nathaniel when he walked in wearing a Grimm’s Fairytales-inspired outfit

Don’t tell anyone, but when Mme. Bustier is out sick for a day, she leaves Nathaniel in charge

Nathaniel: Okay! All in favor of staying in class and doing a boring test, raise your hand.

Max: *Raises his hand*

WNathaniel: All in favor of going back in time to Scotland and seeing if the Loch Ness Monster is real, raise your hand!

Everyone else: *Raising their hands*

Nathaniel: It’s unanimous!

Max: No, it’s not!

Nathaniel: Pay no mind to the wet blanket!

Max: Are you even allowed to drive that thing?

Nathaniel: I’ll have you know, it is most certainly legal for me to drive a vehicle that operates as a Time Machine… Seeing as there are no laws.

Alix: Checks out.

Max: Does it, though?

Mme. Bustier has to have her students sign waivers just in case one of them gets hit by a cannonball

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #mom bustier au #nathaniel kurtzberg #mlb au #answered ask #ask me stuff #magic school bus

[littlemisssquiggles]

Y’know what would be unintentionally ironic but somewhat expected?

If V9 ended on a cliffhanger with RWBYJ returning from the Ever After and reuniting with their comrades on the other side only to learn that Oscar was missing…again.

As us Pineheads in the RWBY community are aware of, it is literally a meme at this point for Oscar Pine to go missing/end up lost at some point during a season. The only two seasons he didn’t go missing in are V4 and V5---the two seasons he was introduced in. V4 being his debut season and V5 being the first time he met the hero team. So on that front, those seasons don’t count.

But for the seasons following:

V6--- Oscar went missing in Argus following a scuffle with Jaune.

V7--- Oscar went missing in Atlas after getting separated from JNR thanks to Neo, shot to his death by General Ironwood only to end up down in Mantle

V8--- Oscar went missing in Mantle after getting kidnapped by the Hound and taken to Monstra to be tortured by Salem and Hazel; leading his comrades on a mission to save him.

I wasn’t kidding when I said Oscar is literally the wandering sheep of the hero team once upon at time. They keep losing him in some shape or form each volume. So I feel like it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch if Ruby and the others came back to Remnant to learn from the others that Oscar is missing yet again, probably for some time after running away and disappearing into the desert in a desperate attempt to find the missing RWBYJ.

Oscar draws inspiration from the little prince fairy-tale character and part of the prince’s story took place in a desert where he found himself lost along with the Pilot as company.

 Let’s say…learning the news that RWBYJ all disappeared following the attack at the portal devastated Oscar.

So much so, that even after meeting with the allies in Vacuo and arriving safely at Shade Academy, Oscar wanted to return to the desert to search for their missing comrades; wanting to believe they were still alive somehow.

But since Vacuo was under siege thanks to Salem’s forces attacking Shade Academy for the Summer Maiden and the Relic of Destruction, the other huntsmen had exhausted themselves and their resources trying to defend the school and its kingdom to the point that they could no longer focus on finding a few missing huntsmen when they were trying to protect the lives of many innocent people.

So ultimately, Oscar is given no other choice than to go off on his own to find RWBYJ. I also have this theory of Oscar finding Mercury in the desert after he was presumed left for dead by Tyrian Callows.

My theory is that Tyrian would double cross Mercury as soon as they arrived in Vacuo, believing him to be a potential traitor to Salem or something along those lines.

Perhaps Oscar and Mercury end up bonding which ultimately leads to them being forced to join forces as Tyrian returned to finish Mercury off and take Oscar to Salem with an army of Grimm Beringels in his stead.

And as us Pineheads are also aware of, in the original Little Prince tale, the prince was poisoned by a snake with his story ending on the presumption that he died and was never able to reunite with his beloved rose.

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have Oscar be poisoned by Tyrian since he is a Scorpion Faunus.

But unlike his fairytale counterpart, Oscar will get to reunite with his rose as Ruby, in her reborn form, would come find and save him in the desert leading to a emotionally heartfelt reunion between them.

Or so I’d like to imagine.

I mean I could end up being very much wrong about Oscar disappearing at all.

But at the same time, I also wouldn’t be too surprised if I’m correct in my assumption because let's just face it, these CRWBY showrunners just love to write this former farm boi as a lost boy.

Shoot I predict Oscar being in danger at least twice if there was to be a V10 since he's still needed alive by Salem inorder to reveal the true location of the Chamber of Choice---the final relic.

So sorry Pineheads, we got some more worrying to do for our boy moving forward. But if it leads to more potential moments between him and his rose, I'd say it'd be worth the added angst.

~LMS (2023)

#squiggles talks: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby theories #oscar and ruby #rwby volume 9 theories #rwby volume 9 spoilers

[aknolan]

i saw your post and wonder... what penny so diffrent then pyrrha? Why penny would return twice but pyrrha stay dead? (I jusk asking this is not a rant)

It's a fair question, yeah. The shortest answer I can give you is another question, why do you think Pyrrha will stay dead? If the fairytale can bring back the dead, who knows, maybe we will see Pyrrha getting brought back too!

Ignoring that possibility though, there's two differences between Penny and Pyrrha. There's the difference between who they are, and between the timing of their deaths.

Pyrrha's trajectory was kind of always set in stone. Her allusion of Achilles, her title as the invincible girl, the way she's held up as The Best Huntress(tm). It's not a coincidence that Cinder used her for the fall of Beacon. Pyrrha was perfect to show just how bad things could get. If the best student was a failure, what did that say about everyone else?

Pyrrha dies for the same reason that a lot of stories have the mentor dying. She dies for the same reason that Beacon falls. The point is to make everyone ask, if Pyrrha can't succeed, who can?

And, ultimately, she was doomed by her choice to go alone. She's a bit like Summer, in that sense. She also gives us the question, "if the best huntress can't do this, who can?"

The answer to both is that they were doomed by going at it alone.

Penny isn't built up as the strongest fighter, and she's not our sign that everything has gone horribly wrong. And it's important to keep that in mind for later.

So what was Penny's trajectory? Is that one set in stone? Was she doomed from the moment she became the winter maiden?

So the thing is, a lot of volume 8 is spent on making sure that Penny lives. Because she's the winter maiden, yes, but also because she's Penny. It's not just about the powers, when she asked Ruby to kill her so the powers would be safe, Ruby refused. Instead they came up with a plan that could have killed everyone if it went wrong.

So while it's possible that she's just really incredibly doomed and nothing can save her, that also seems a little depressing.

Pyrrha doesn't make it out of five murder attempts just to die to the sixth because she became a lot more fragile due to attempt five. The first time someone tries to kill Pyrrha, she dies.

But Penny has like, three near misses where she very much could have died but was saved by her friends.

The idea that everyone did so much to save Penny, went for the riskier plan multiple times because losing her wasn't an option, and then she still dies? That's just depressing. And yeah, sometimes stories are depressing. What if Penny's story is just meant to be depressing?

Let's get to timing.

Pyrrha's death happened at the fall of Beacon. This is an event that drastically shifted the tone of the series. Sure, things had been building up for a while and it was clear something heavier was coming. But it's still very much the turning point. It's a landmark for the story.

Before the fall of Beacon we have fun adventures at school, and after it all the characters carry the burden of knowing that one of the safest places on Remnant was destroyed. The strongest student that everyone looked up to was killed. It's when everything goes wrong, and the story gets serious.

Pyrrha doesn't come back for the same reason that Beacon can't be restored. Sure, the in-universe reason is that there's a giant Grimm attracting more Grimm, but out-of-universe it's because the story can't go back to what it was before the fall of Beacon.

Beacon is a scar on Remnant's map, and Pyrrha is a scar in JNR's team.

So we get to the fall of Atlas, and the characters already know everything can fall, they already know their friends might not make it out alive. The audience knows that too.

And there's really no need for a sign that everything's gone horribly wrong, because there's already several of those. Salem has the lamp and the staff, Atlas and Mantle are gone, team rwby fell, a bunch of citizens died, and the ones that survived are under attack in a sandstorm.

This is the darkest hour, and what's needed now is hope.

Ruby broke. She fainted when she heard Penny died, and while she might be able to keep up with the idea of "let's go to the tree and get back home" well enough... she doesn't have a reason to fight right now. She doesn't have a reason to want to get back right now.

Where's she going to find a reason to go back to Remnant?

What better way for Ruby to regain her hope, than for her to find out it's still possible to save the person she loves?

.

There's a third thing. It's about Salem.

Once upon a time, Salem loved someone dearly, and he died. And then he came back. And then he died again, and Salem broke.

Once upon a time, a woman pleaded with the gods to give her back the man she loved, and they decided to punish her by making her immortal. Forever separated from the person she loved, in a way she otherwise would not be since the afterlife seems to exist. They lecture her about selfishness and arrogance, when really anyone grieving for a loved one taken from them far too soon would do the same as her if they could. And when that didn't beat her down, they killed everyone on the planet so she would be alone forever.

This was cruel.

The brother gods pile cruelty on top of cruelty, and now Ruby is faced with the same situation that Salem once was. A loved one brought back to life, only to lose them again quickly after.

If Ruby just accepts Penny's death then what's the message there? Ruby's better than Salem somehow because she can accept the death of her loved one? Salem should have listened to the god of light the first time around?

"We must live with balance, but balance is blind" is what the intro says. The world is unfair, balance means that people who don't deserve it get hurt. And then I think back to volume 1, "this isn't a fairytale" "that's why we're here. To make it better." Balance is blind, and aren't they here to make it better? When you can save someone, shouldn't you try?

Bringing Penny back to life, and more importantly having Ruby make the choice to do that? It's a refutation to the cruelty of the brother gods.

They're in a fairytale now, if there's ever a possibility to save the recently deceased, it's in the Ever After.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #penny polendina #ask #anon ask #pyrrha nikos

[theragamuffininitiative]

Okay tell me ALL about your fairy tale retelling WIP, I am most curious!!

hi hi hi!

Brief lil disclaimer here: I wrote this story as my nanowrimo project back in erm 2021 and have barely looked at it since. (working on that!) Everything I am about to say is based on my memory of how the story was working at the time and a couple glances at my documents tonight - and if I say something in this post that I like better than what I originally had, I will run with it. XD

Right then!

Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf is a Russian fairytale classified as a 550 on the ATU folklore index (a fact I sprinkle in not to be pretentious but bc I recently discovered the index and it is fascinating). This basically means the story revolves around catching a mystical bird, sometimes a phoenix, and involves a princess, usually a horse, and some supernatural animal helper. In my retelling, I also take from the Grimm Brothers' The Golden Bird version.

As you know, I fell into the intrigue of this tale when visiting an art museum displaying Vasnetsov's A Knight at the Crossroads, which is a reference to this tale. Now, Vasnetsov also painted Tsarevitch Ivan on a Gray Wolf:

And it's just so????!

In my retelling of this fairytale, our hero is a bit of a simple boy. He is content with simple things and a simple life after his near-death at a young age to a mysterious wasting disease spreading across the land - a madness that robs the infected of sleep and appetite until they go insane. The only cure is the fruit of an equally mysterious tree. Ivan fears his healing may have not been complete, for he has not felt the need for sleep or food the way he ought to ever since.

When fruit begins to disappear from the closely protected tree, the threat of losing the cure drives Ivan into action. An enchantment of sleep shields the thief from being captured. Here, Ivan's curse is a boon, as he alone sees a great golden bird steal the fruit. Although a great company set out to capture the bird, Ivan becomes separated from them and lost. At an ancient crossroads that promises death in every direction, he meets the Wolf, the instrument of the crossroads' doom. When the Wolf unexpectedly takes Ivan to find his missing companions, they discover the whole company has fallen to the madness - Ivan's brother among them.

It is no disease, but a curse.

Ivan, now with the Wolf, seeks aid from his best friend, the Princess Evolett, who was to be wed to the prince of the neighboring country and seal a treaty of peace between them. But all is not as it seems in these foreign lands, and Ivan must work with the Wolf to capture the golden bird, protect the fruit tree, rescue Evolett, heal the madness, prevent war between the two kingdoms, and defeat a dark enchantment for good - if the Wolf, the madness, or a multitude of other enemies don't kill him first... [ramble continued below the cut]

I love, love, love playing around with the fairytale motifs in this story.

For example, the original fairytale has a very episodic, repetitive sort of scavenger hunt that Ivan is forced into. I messed with it a lot to give the different elements their own, interconnected importance: the tree is a magical cure, the bird has magical elements of its own, the golden cage from some versions of the tale is a metaphor for the princess's imprisonment, the inns are not merely symbolism for laziness but traps laid by a powerful enemy to serve a dark purpose, and nothing is as it would seem - least of all Ivan or the Wolf.

The characteristics for Ivan specifically came to me while watching Mal in the first season of Netflix's Shadow and Bone.

I really love Mal's stubborn tenacity, fierce loyalty, and simplistic personal goals in the face of all the complexity and conniving of everything around him. Since this fairytale showcases a "simpleton" character, I wanted to show that character at their very best.

Also! I love writing Ivan and the Wolf. Ivan's plucky, irreverent sense of humor set against the Wolf's stoic, utterly dry and cold attitude is so much fun to play with. 👏

(tried to credit the images by link, not sure if that worked)

Excerpt from Ivan meeting the Wolf:

Then the wolf made a guttural, whining sound from the back of its throat, a sound which rolled forward out of its mouth and formed into four distinct words. "Will you kill me?" Ivan stared at it.  Having never met a wolf before, he couldn’t say with absolute authority that they did not speak, but he also thought that if they had, someone might have mentioned it to him once upon a time. This one, however, most assuredly had spoken. He supposed he should have asked it to repeat itself, or even agreed with the sentiment and at once lifted his weapon. Instead, he considered the question posed to him. "I don't think so," he said in the end. "Not unless I have to.”  He didn’t add that this was because he didn’t think he could beat the wolf if he tried. There was something else at work here, as he had feared, and he needed to find out what the game was. In his head, he noted that this creature was not merely a wolf, but the Wolf. The wolf made another noise, and this sounded like a quiet, “Ah, then.” “What will you do if I come down?” Ivan ventured to ask. The Wolf blinked lazily. “I have deprived you of your mount,” it stated. “I have come to take you where you must go.” That didn’t sound promising, although slightly better than admitting it wanted to gobble him up. “Are you fae?” Ivan called to it. He felt he remembered something from his father’s stories that the fae had to answer truthfully the questions you asked them directly. “I am not.” Enchanted or a liar, then. A wolf given the tongue of man. It also seemed to think something like a man, though its tone was distant and cold. “How can I trust you?” he asked it. The Wolf stared at him, not responding, and cocked its head. So maybe not the thinking of a man. Maybe the concept of trust was foreign to it still. He tried something less abstract. “Are you going to attack me?” “That is not my purpose,” said the Wolf. “There is an inn, a long distance from here. You have strayed from the path and it took me some time to find you, but I can lead you there, through ways horse hooves cannot tread, before the Wood grows dark.” “Is leading me to the inn your purpose?” “It is.” “Why?” The Wolf had to think about this, and Ivan thought again that it didn’t seem to be comfortable with questions that involved reasoning beyond cold facts. “The crossroads demand a price from everyone who passes through them. The price is set by your choice and you have chosen. Now I will take you where your path leads.”

Yes, I'll take "uneasy partnerships founded on enmity but sealed in friendship" for $500, thank you.

A messy music playlist I haven't touched since NaNo writing: here It's a story of family, loyalty, honor, and simple truths more powerful than any deep enchantment. 🥺😭

Excited to write Evolett more, she is a spitfire and impressed by no one (even when probably she should be, for her own good lol). Ivan's father was an adventurer in his own day, and I love writing little nods to his offstage capers - there's an invisibility cloak!

Ivan's brother is kind of a jerk. 🙈 But hey, still family. And he's less of a jerk than the guys in the old fairytale ok. 😅 Probably.

Ok, I feel like that's a pretty boring ramble, but I have tried to type this up about five different times so here we are! I have shed tears over Ivan and the Wolf, and lived in the nonsense from the random old woman running the dilapidated inn next to the one that breathes enchantment, and sketched out the borderlines between kingdoms and the unseen shadowy arm reaching across borders to ensnare them all, and written a lot of dog jokes. I love this one, I can't wait to get back into it. 😊

Thank you for asking and letting me ramble! 💛

#i have tried to type this up like five times #and it's been one of those weeks where i'm just constantly falling asleep #so we compromise and i stayed up so i will be falling asleep all day tomorrow at work instead lol #thanks for the ask! #kanerallels #wip: the madness and the golden bird

[the-cult-of-russo]

Do Me Damage (Part 2)

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Warnings: cursing, angst, mentions of drugs. 

A/N: You guys really seemed to love this story so far, so thank you so much!

----

You got ready to head out to work the next day feeling weighed down and miserable. Seeing Billy the night before had hurt you and you felt like you were all upside down. You'd cried yourself to sleep the night before as a million and one memories suffocated you. You thought you made your peace with his betrayal but seeing him had brought it all back to the surface. He'd been a constant in your life until he just left. You'd gone to the group home when you were six and Billy was seven. He'd taken you under his wing and looked after you, you'd become best friends and were thick as thieves. Billy only ever had a couple of foster families but always came right back until no one else bothered with him. You felt like were constantly being sent to families, but just like Billy you always ended up back at the group home. It got to the point where you were sure there was something wrong with you and it reminded you of a time when you were nine and Billy was ten.

~

You and Billy were sitting in the grass, you making daisy chains as he read the Grimm's fairytales to you. You weren't really paying attention though, your eyes fixated on the daisies as your mind went a mile a minute. You suddenly felt something nudge your foot and looked up to see Billy looking at you impatiently.

"You're not listening," he huffed.

"Yeah, I am," you lied. He squinted at you and you sighed, looking back at the flowers in your hands. 

"You miss that family?" He asked hesitantly. You shook your head because you didn't miss them, you never missed them. You'd only been back two days after another unsuccessful family. You always felt out of place there, like you didn't belong. But most of all you missed Billy when you were gone. 

"What is it then?" He prodded.

"It's nothing," you muttered with a shake of your head.

"Bunny…" he sighed, making you roll your eyes at the nickname. He'd given it to you just days after coming to the group home because you took your stuffed bunny everywhere with you. 

"Is there something wrong with me?" You asked quietly.

"What?" His incredulous tone made you look at him and he was frowning at you.

"They always send me back. Is there something wrong with me?" You asked again, hating how your voice wobbled a little. The book in his hands snapped shut before he placed it on the grass and scooted closer to you.

"No. All of 'em are stupid for sendin' you back. Any family would be lucky to have you," he murmured sincerely. You nodded, not really believing his words as you toyed with the daisy chain in your hand. You felt him gently bump your shoulder with his own and glanced at him.

"You don't need 'em anyway. You got me, we're family," he smiled at you. You felt warmth bloom in your chest as you felt a smile of your own forming.

"Yeah?" You asked hopefully.

"Yeah. We got each other, we don't need those assholes," he grinned. 

"Billy! You cursed!" You snorted, making him laugh as he shoved you playfully. You'd felt like Billy was family since you'd gotten here but hearing him say it really made it real for you.

~

The memories left a bitter taste on your tongue. Back then you never imagined he'd do what he did. You'd begged him not to join the Marines but he'd convinced you it was something he really wanted. He'd convinced you that even though he'd be gone a lot that he'd always keep in touch and come back home to you. When you turned 18 you'd left the group home and got a job at the diner, getting your own apartment. You'd been excited for Billy to come home only months after to see how you'd made it nice and homey, a real home to call your own. Something neither of you had ever really had. He'd told you he'd write letters when he was away and try to call but you hadn't heard a peep from him. You guessed he was just busy. You'd marked down the day he'd be back and anxiously awaited. But he never came. A day, a week, a month. You'd thought at first maybe he just had to stay a little longer, you knew it could happen sometimes. But when a year went by you'd come to the realisation that he must have died over there. There wasn't another explanation for why he'd just vanished. It wasn't like either of you had family, there was no one for you to call to ask to check. You'd carried that grief around with you close to ten years, wishing you'd fought harder for him to stay. 

It had been a cold hard slap in the face to see him the month before. After getting home shocked and hurt, you'd looked into it more, seeing articles about him and his company. Billy always wanted to make a name for himself, to be someone. You'd just always thought you'd be by his side when he did it. The pain of him willingly leaving you behind without so much as a word as to why hurt you more than when you thought he'd died. And one thing had been on your mind since that day. Why? But the why didn't really matter because he'd done it anyway. It took a long time to be able to heal from that and you thought you were fine except you really weren't. Not after seeing him. Talking to him. And he had the audacity to talk down to you like being a drug dealer had been something you wanted. Fuck Billy Russo. 

You headed out to work once ready, getting into your car. It was almost 6 pm and you had to go drop off the money for Tony and pick up more product first. Your head was a mess of emotions and thoughts as you made the drive. You had no intention of seeing Billy again and you hoped after the night before that he wouldn't just turn again. By the time you got to Tony's apartment, you were already annoyed and agitated and you had no idea just how worse it was going to get. You headed inside the apartment building and up the stairs to Tony's apartment. Besides his lack of patience and the fact he seemed to love his questionable job choice, Tony wasn't a bad guy. He always looked after you and anyone that worked for him and he was a pretty generous boss. He also had no qualms when people wanted to walk away. He was quite different to some of the other bosses you knew were out there who would dispose of their people when they wanted out just because it was easier for them.

"Hey, here's the cash," you said pleasantly as he opened his door. He gave you a kind but strange smile as he nodded and took the money as you got it from your pocket and handed it to him. He wasn't acting himself and you blinked at him warily.

"Thanks… Why didn't you tell me you wanted to quit?" He asked softly. His words caught you off guard. While yes you'd been thinking of 'retiring', you hadn't mentioned it to anyone but Leanna and she didn't work for him anymore.

"What?" You muttered confused, unsure how this all came to be. 

"You know I don't have my people working against their will here, Y/N. If you wanted to leave then-" he started.

"I know that! Tony… what's going on?" You asked with a frown. He heaved a heavy sigh as he leaned against the doorframe.

"Your friend… the man in the suit, I don't remember his name. He came by last night, he told me you quit. That you don't want to work for me anymore. He made out like I'm keeping you here against your will," he muttered. Your blood boiled, your back straightening at his words. Billy. The asshole had the nerve to come here after your talk and quit your job for you. You felt murderous. 

"He's not my friend, he hasn't been for a long time. You've always been good to me, I'd never try to make out otherwise. He just has an issue with my… profession. Everything he said was lies," you bit out. You knew Billy's insinuation had hurt Tony. He was a good-(ish) man and he was clearly upset thinking that you thought otherwise. He nodded thoughtfully and gave you a wary glance.

"I believe you. But I had to find someone to replace you pretty quickly or I'd lose money so I already hired someone else. He also threatened me if I let you work for me again and I like my legs intact so… I'm sorry Y/N," he frowned sadly. The fact Billy threatened him only made you more mad. And now you didn't have a job. Sure you'd been thinking about hanging up the plastic baggies but not yet and on your own terms. This just pissed you off.

"No, I'm sorry. He shouldn't have come here threatening you. I'll have a word with him," you said bitterly. He gave you another sad smile as he stepped out of the apartment fully and gave you a tight hug. You weren't ready for this yet, to leave this behind. As much as you hated what you did, it had been part of you now for so long. When you left you wanted to be mentally ready for it. You cursed Billy for coming back into your life. 

After leaving, you slammed your car door as you got inside it. You only had one thing on your mind and it was murdering Billy. From doing your little investigation after finding out he was indeed alive and well, you knew where Anvil was. You weren't sure if he'd still be there or not but it didn't stop you from zooming right over there in a furious haze. The place was still open when you got there and parked and as you stalked inside, there were still some guys training. You got some curious looks but ignored every one as you made your way to what looked to be Billy's office. You bypassed the desk with the pretty brunette sitting at it and she jumped up, her heels clicking on the floor as she chased after you.

"Miss! You can't just walk in there!" She exclaimed. You ignored her as you carried on to the door.

"Miss! You need to leave!" She continued as you threw open the door. 

Billy was sitting at his desk writing something down, his head snapping up when his door opened almost violently. 

"I'm sorry, sir! She just barged right in. Do I need to get security?" The woman asked, making you scoff as you glared daggers at Billy. He was staring at you looking mildly shocked to see you again but you recognised the apprehensive look on his face.

"No, it's fine. Thank you, Laura," he murmured, giving her a brief nod. The woman, Laura, hovered uncertainly for a moment before she scurried off and closed the door behind her.

"You piece of shit!" You hissed at him once alone. He looked genuinely shocked at your malice, frowning as he stood from his desk.

"Nice to see you again too," he murmured wryly. It only served to fuel your anger.

"You quit my job for me? Really? You think you can just waltz back into my life after ten fucking years, judge me and then quit my job?!" You yelled. Your feet were firmly rooted in place as your anger took hold of you. You were pretty sure the vein in your neck was about to burst.  

"Right, you're welcome," he snarked with a scoff.

"You're- Seriously? You expect me to thank you for fucking everything up?" You asked incredulously. His eyes narrowed as he moved around to the front of his desk.

"I did you a favor, I-" he started tensely, only to be cut off by you.

"Fuck you! I liked my job! Tony was good to me and never once was I forced to work for him. I know it might be hard to wrap your head around but I chose to work for him and I liked it!" You yelled, making his face harden. You didn't miss the roll of his shoulder. 

"You liked sellin' poison to addicts? You liked helpin' 'em fuck their lives up more? Did you ever think some of 'em mighta had kids? Kids that'd end up in the system, just like you and me?" He sneered harshly. 

"Don't you dare try to use my past against me, Billy! You've got no right after what you've done!" You snarled bitingly, shutting him right up. He had the good grace to look guilty.

"I didn't know, alright? I just thought… I thought you did it 'cause you had no choice. 'Cause I left you to fend for yourself. I was tryin' to make shit right, you're better than that shit," he explained softly, his dark eyes boring into you. You scoffed loudly and shook your head.

"Well, you thought wrong. I did have a choice. It was good money and I liked it. I don't need your help and I sure as fuck don't need you to 'save' me," you sneered. It was a lie. You didn't like it and you had ended up there because you were left to fend for yourself. But for some reason, you couldn't bring yourself to admit that to him. You didn't need him gloating over the fact he felt vindicated for quitting your job for you. He swallowed thickly as he took a step closer to you.

"Good money, right? That why you live in a shithole apartment in a terrible fuckin' neighbourhood?" He asked hotly. Your eyes narrowed to slits and your fists clenched at your sides.

"And how the fuck would you know where I live?" You asked slowly. He scoffed as he gave you an annoyingly smug smirk and you resisted the urge to slap it off his stupid handsome face.

"I've got plenty of tools at my disposal. I looked you up after last night," he shrugged casually. 

"I like my apartment because it's mine! It might not be a fancy mansion or a modern penthouse but it's mine and its home. I could move if I wanted to but I like it there. You've got no idea how much I've got in the bank right now, Mr Russo. So yeah, it was good money," you muttered tensely, cocking your head to one side as you glared at him. He pursed his lips, his eyes scanning your face in a way you knew meant he was trying to see if you were lying, but you weren't. 

"Tell me… tell me there wasn't a part of you that didn't wanna work there. That there wasn't a part of you that wanted to leave," he demanded. Your spine straightened and you knew he could read you like a book when he raised a brow at you with a smirk like he was victorious. 

"I wasn't unhappy there, Billy. Maybe yeah I was planning to leave but not yet. I was making sure I had enough money saved up so I can go off and do whatever I want. I'd outgrown it there but it didn't mean I was ready to leave today and it sure as fuck wasn't your choice to make," you muttered in response, wiping the smirk off his face.

He blew out a sigh and hung his head, looking at you through his lashes.

"I'm sorry, alright? I fucked up again. I just wanted to help, I wanted to fix it," he murmured with a frown. 

"All I want is for you to stay the hell away from me," you hissed before turning on your heel and making your way to the door. He was quicker than you though and he grabbed your wrist, turning you to face him before you got there.

"Can't we talk about this? Don't you even wanna know why I left?" He asked quickly, his obsidian gaze boring into you.

"I thought I did but it doesn't really matter. You still left," you bit out as you tried to yank your arm but his grip was tight.

"Don't just walk away like this," he pleaded desperately. 

"Hurts, doesn't it?" You asked cruelly. Your coldness took him off guard and when you felt his hand loosen, you moved your arm from his grip and slipped out of the door. You were relieved he didn't chase you down when you left. You'd never have expected to feel this way about Billy. The boy that was once family, that you loved more than anyone. Now you didn't want to see his face ever again. Not only had he abandoned and betrayed you, but now he'd fucked shit up after only being back in your life for one day. 

—

The next day you were sitting in a nice little diner with Leanna and Karen for lunch. Your head was in the clouds as you reeled from the god-awful few days you'd endured. You still hadn't told the girls about what had happened. Karen was a new friend and you didn't feel like burdening her with your troubles. Leanna was your best friend but she also had a lot on her plate right now as she had a new little boy to look after as she navigated motherhood. You were pulled from your thoughts when you heard your name being called, your head snapping up to see both girls watching you amused.

"Everything okay? You're so distracted today," Leanna asked with a rueful smile.

"Yeah, I'm just… tired," you muttered with a snort, not really wanting to get into it right now. She nodded, accepting your answer as she took a sip from her soda.

"Alright, well I better head home. I hate being away from Nathan for too long," she pouted, making you smile as she gathered her things. You were the little boy's godmother and he was the sweetest little baby. 

"Give him kisses for me. I'm probably gonna head home too," you smiled, finishing your drink.

"Oh, before I forget, Karen. You said you'd put in a good word with Ellis when I'm ready, right? Any chance that could happen?" You asked hopefully as you turned to Karen. Leanna halted where she stood shrugging on her jacket.

"Wait, I thought you were quitting next year? Isn't it a bit soon? You don't wanna overwork yourself," she frowned as Karen hummed in agreement.

"I uh… I quit… last night actually. So no overworking for me," you lied with a smile on your face. Karen watched you carefully but Leanna nodded.

"We'll meet you for a real girls night soon and we can have a real catch-up," she murmured, leaning down to kiss your head sweetly. After saying some more goodbyes, she was off.

"You quit, huh?" Karen asked wryly, raising a brow at you. You should have known nothing would escape her. 

"It's a long story," you smirked self-deprecatingly. She gave you an impish grin with a shrug.

"I've got time," she said softly. You thought it wouldn't hurt to tell her briefly. You didn't feel like going into the whole story but you could tell her the main points. Karen knew what you'd been doing for work since she'd met Leanna first when Leanna was still working. Although she wasn't exactly happy with your choice of profession, she didn't judge you for it, knowing it had been a means to an end and at the time you felt like you had no choice. It's why she'd been so eager to help you get out of that life and come and work with her.

"I had this friend from the group home. He was the only family I ever knew and I loved him. Then one day when I was 17 and he was 18, he left, never came back. I thought he was dead. Then he just walks right back into my life a couple of nights ago, he was at a bar and saw me. He saw me as some damsel working against my will, so he decided to go and threaten Tony and he quit for me," you muttered, suddenly wishing for a stronger drink  

"Wow. He seems like a real asshole," Karen scoffed with a frown.

"Yeah… Well, I went to his work and told him to leave me alone. He already hurt me enough when he just left me like he did," you sighed. She reached over the table and took your hand softly. 

"I know your job was a little… unorthodox, and I get he was probably shocked and maybe worried, but you deserve better than that. He can't just come back into your life like that and mess things up. It wasn't his choice to make. It sounds like you're better off without him," she murmured. You nodded, giving her a sad smile. It hurt you how things had gone with you and Billy. You couldn't help but wonder what life would be if he'd come back to you. It didn't seem like he'd suffered at all with you not in his life, but you sure had.

"I'll talk to Ellis tomorrow for you. You'll probably shadow me for a bit to learn the ropes. It'll be fun working together," she grinned, making you smile as your thoughts turned to the future. 

"I can't wait," you said sincerely with a smile. You still weren't happy with Billy quitting for you but you were excited to start a new chapter in your life. You and Karen chatted a little more as she told you some of the things she'd been doing recently and what to expect. It only furthered your excitement for a change. Just as you were about to leave, she stopped you.

"I almost forgot, I'm having a birthday party on Saturday. Leanna already said you'd both come and she has the details," she shot you a toothy grin as you snorted and rolled your eyes. Of course, Leanna said you'd go. It wasn't really your scene and you didn't know any of Karen's friends, but it was her birthday and at least Leanna would be there.

"I'll be there," you smiled before the pair of you hugged. After parting ways you made your way home since you didn't have anything else to do now. You couldn't wait until you got to start your new job with Karen. You hated sitting around doing nothing, your head would be far too loud. And with the current circumstances, it would only be worse. You really hoped you'd get to start soon. 

Taglist: (if you’ve been asked to be tagged and aren’t here, it wouldn’t let me tag some people.)

@firexfate

@blanchedelioncourt

@ariesbutalibra

@sunshinedaisies-anddeath

@snowkestrel

@music-indie-tv

@idaofinfinity

@sweetserendipity65

@ramadiiiisme

@k-marzolf

@celestialams

@woowwwee

#billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo fanfic #billy russo imagine

[adarkrainbow]

Romanian witches: Baba Dochia

Originally I wanted to talk about only one "Romanian hag" from the world of fairytales, but from this one entity I ended up talking about Muma Padurii and Baba Cloantza and many more... Because there is never just one "baba" or one "muma" in Romania. There is a whole series of malevolent hags and magical old women which all embody in one way or another the benevolent, malevolent, or neutral aspects of the archetypal Romanian witch.

I will mention that Wikipedia lists the Muma Padurii/Baba Cloantza in her wicked form as one of the three recurring fairytale villains in Romanian fairytales, alongside the "balaur" (the "dragon", a winged multi-headed evil snake that comes in three variations 1) air-dragon that causes/lives in storms 2) earth-dragon living in chasms and pits and associated with gems 3) water-dragon, usually killed by the saint - see the legend of saint Georges) and the "Zmeu" (Zmei in plural, the Romanian variation of the Slavic creature of the same name, usually a giant sorcerer but which sometimes appear as a dragon)

But now I finally reach the witch I originally wanted to talk about. Baba Dochia. I learned at first about her when looking at an article which covered the Romanian translations of the brothers Grimm "Frau Holle", and this article evoked how in Romanian translations, often the legendary character of Frau Holle was replaced by a Romanian folkloric being: Baba Dochia (which the article did compare to the Baba Cloantza as an aspect of the "fairytale wicked witch"). With the bonus that the Baba Dochia is closely linked to the weather and to seasonal changes, which explains why she can fit the role of Frau Holle.

Here is what the article had to say about the Baba Dochia.

She is one of the many supernatural "babas" of Romanian legends (remember, "baba" simply means "old woman", the same way the German "Frau" means "lady" or "miss"). Baba Dochia ha, like Frau Holle a weather role - Baba Dochia is a manifestation of the cold weather and the winter season. Or, to be more precise, Baba Dochia is only a manifestation of the end of winter. The whole thing of Baba Dochia is that her "weather role" takes places during the beginning of March, a set of nine days that are typically called the "babele" (plural of Baba). This era marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring - a shift of seasons usually symbolized as a fight between two entities. Baba Dochia is supposed to wear nine "cojoace" (coats made of sheep's skin), representing how cold the weather is. During these nine days, when the weather is violent, unpredictable and constantly-shifting, Baba Dochia will remove each of her coats, one per day - and the more coats the take off, the hotter the air becomes and the more snow melts. In fairytales, this "seasonal battle" usually has the spring season symbolized by the "prince Charming" figure.

This is the case of a specific Romanian fairytale that is an equivalent of the Grimm's "The three little men in the woods". In this fairytale the Baba Dochia is a wicked stepmother that sends her martyrized stepdaughter to a frozen stream, to wash black wool until it becomes white. The stepdaughter encounters a beautiful young man named Martisor (I am not adding the accents here because my keyboard is not equiped for it) who embodies spring: not only does he help the girl, he also gives her flowers (we are in winter). When the stepdaughter returns she manages to get her accused of cheating on her husband (because after all you know, she accepted the flowers of a handsome stranger in the woods... It can look bad in an old countryside society) ; but these flowers will cause Dochia's downfall. She believes these flowers mean spring is here (when in fact it is still winter), as such she goes to the mountain with her sheep as she does every spring... but she just ends up frozen to death there, and all her sheep with her. This folktale is tied to the rocky landscape of several mountains - a type of mineral manifestation called "Babele" and which is supposed to be Baba Dochia and her sheep, petrified into stone.

Baba Dochia also appeared in the works of Mihail Sadoveanu, but this author decided to reinvent the character as a less wicked and more tragic character. In his own take on the story of Martisor, Dochia isn't the wickedness of a cruel season that needs to end ; but rather she suffers from the deep gap between the human world and the "otherworld". Otherworld that Baba Dochia represents: she is a witch-like old woman with obscure powers and a shadowy domain, living all alone in a little cabin at the top of the mountain, isolated from all civilization. One day, she adopts a young orphan girl and she raises her with love - but away from all other human presence. The young girl, who is a plain human unlike the otherwordly Baba Dochia, cannot resist her roots, and demands to be allowed to return into humans, in the light-filled world of the valley. Baba Dochia agrees to let her go there to see the humans - but in the valley, the girl falls in love with the titular Martisor and forgets to return to her adoptive mother. The old woman, alone and heartbroken, ends up freezing to death in the coldness of her little dark cabin.

This was all I could get from the article. To this I will add info from a little brief Internet research:

An alternate name of Baba Dochia in Bulgaria and Macedonia is Baba Marta, in reference to the spring celebrations of the first of March, Martenitsi, Bulgarian name of the Romanian Martisoare, from which the "prince" Martisor gets his name. Baba Dochia can also be found under this name in Moldavia on top of Romania. In English a translation is "Old Dokia".

A variation of the "babele" name described above: the fifteen first days of March can be called the "zilele babei" (the days of the old woman) (babei/baba refering to the old woman, the herb-healer and the female witch)

There are actually many versions of the fairytale I described above:

First version: Baba Dochia had a son, Dragobete in Romanian, Dragomir in Bulgarian, who married a young girl against his mother's will. Dochia abuses her daughter-in-law and at the end of February sends her to fetch berries in the woods. She is helped by an old man, who is actually God in disguise and produces the berries by a miracle. When Baba Dochia/Marta sees the berries, she believes spring is here, puts on twelve sheep-skins as coats and goes to the mountain with her son and sheep. But due to the rain her coats get soaked and heavy - so she removes them, but the frost suddenly arrives and freezes her to death, with her ship, and her son who was playing the flute.

Second variation: Pretty similar to the first, with a few details changed. There are only nine coats instead of twelve, and the Baba removes them due to the hot weather before the frost suddenly arrives. Her son doesn't go with her to the mountain. The girl isn't elped by God but by the Virgin Mary or a female saint. The girl is precisely asked to go fetch strawberries. And here the Baba and her sheep don't just freeze to death, they are petrified into the "babele" stones found in the mountains.

Third version: The baba sends her daughter-in-law to the river in winter to clean a very dirty coat until it gets white and shining, but the girl fails to do so and cries. A mysterious man arrives and gives her a snowdrop flower which makes the coat white by magic. When the girl returns with the white coat and the flower in her hair, baba Dochia believes spring is here - and she ends up like in the previous tales, frozen/petrified on the mountain.

Fourth version: Again, Dragobete marries a woman against his mother's will, so the baba Dochia abuses her, and notably sends her wash black wool in a stream until it becomes white (an impossible task). The baba specifically forbids her from returning until the wool is white, and since the girl can only freeze her hands in the cold water she cries about losing her husband (that she loves very much). Jesus then appears and offers her a red flower which makes the wool white. When the girl returns Baba Dochia believes springtime came since a man could pick up a flower - and you know the rest, she goes to the mountain with her nine coats, due to the weather she drops them one by one, and when she gets rid of the last everything suddenly turns cold and she freezes to death. (There's a fifth version which is just this story but with twelve coats instead of nine)

Outside of pure fairytales, if we go more into the folklore and myths, scholars debate the possible origins of the Baba Dochia/Baba Marta. Some believe she might be a character born of the old name of Dacia (Dakia in Latin and medieval Greek, close to "Dochia/Dokia"). Others believe she might have evolved from a Byzantine celebration Eudoxia/Eudokia's martyr on the 1st of March. A third theory is that she is the leftover of an ancient Thracian goddess common to the Romanian and Bulgarian territories, a deity of agriculture, fertility, renewal... But all in all the Baba Dochia/Marta was seen as a weather spirit with a quickly-changing mind and unstable temper, and as a result needed to be appeased with offerings. Only by these gifts will she make sure winter doesn't last too long and spring returns (while in fairytales it turned into the Dochia's death causing the triumph of spring). A folkloric ritual consists of leaving the offerings by fruit-trees or under rocks, and if they are left under rocks, people then look which kind of insect live or takes refuge there. Depending on whether it is a millipede, a spider, a cockroach or any other thing, it will form an omen about how the year to come will unfold, turning the Dochia offering into a divination ritual.

But as I said before, the baba Dochia was mostly seen as a negative entity - it was said she was a spirit of the bad weather who during the nine "babele" (the nine first days of March during which she removes her nine coats) brought snowstorms and cold winds. Another divination ritual had a woman pick up randomly one of the nine babele-days: if the day turns out to be good weather, they are promised to stay fair and nice in their old days ; if the day has bad weather, it means they will age into a bitter hag. There's a lot of proverbs and sayings tied to the weather and Dochia - which makes her similar to the German Frau Holle. Of course when people say "Baba Dochia removes one of her coats", it means the weather is very warm ; but when it snows people also say "Baba Dochia is shaking her coat".

The Baba Dochia also appears in a little story that is told all the way across Europe (I know this because just a few days ago I read a variation of it among fairytales of Bretagne). The story always goes the same: there is an arrogant or wicked old woman/shepherdess who for a reason or another mocks or threatens the month of March (here a sentient entity), who in revenge steals some days from February to come earlier punish the old lady. In Romanian this old lady is Baba Dochia.

There is also a very WEIRD pseudo-historical legend which tries to explain Baba Dochia as having been a person from the Antique history of the land... According to this tale, Dochia was related to the last Dacian king, Decebalus (she was his sister for some, his daughter for others). When the Roman emperor Trajan conquered the Dacians, Dochia fled into the Carpathian mountains because Trajan wanted to marry her. She disguised herself as a shepherd, and all her servants and followers disguised themselves as sheep. But Trajan kept pursuing her and sending his forces after her, so in despair she prayed to the Dacian god Zalmoxis, who turned her and her fake-sheep into the Babele stones we can still see today. Quite a strange story, heh?

There's also a Christianized, benevolent version of the Baba Dochia - because of course, Christianity is VERY strong in Romania and gets its hands onto every folkloric character it can (this is why in the Baba Dochia fairytales the Martisor-Prince Spring figure gets so often replaced by Jesus). In this sanitized, Christianized version, baba Dochia was a pious old woman whose prayers for winter to end brought spring... Quite a far move from the wicked stepmother.

As a last note: Baba Dochia's son, Dragobete, also plays a part in the "weather symbolism/calendar meaning" of the fairytale. Because while Martisor is the beginning of spring and Baba Dochia the end of winter, Dragobete is actually an old Romanian god of love (often called the Romanian Eros/Cupid) who is celebrated during the "Dragobetele" celebrations on the 14th of February... The Romanian Saint Valentine's day. Dragobete was called in old pagan traditions "he who bets on love" and "the godfather of animals", because he protected and blessed all couples upon his day - as such, you had a sort of human "Saint Valentine" celebration on his feast-day, but you also had an homage to what was believed to be the "engagement of birds". There's a whole set of traditions and legends surrounding this which I will not expand upon here, but it makes sense than that this spirit of the love-day of February is symbolized as the loving husband of the heroine and the son of the hag of the end of February...

#romanian witches #romanian folklore #romanian fairytales #baba dochia #frau holle #fairytale villains #romanian mythology

[slashingdisneypasta]

Inkubus x Fem!Soulmate!Reader || Drabble

Plot: This is about two people who were undoubtedly meant for each other, but who’s lives did not fit together; With a sweet ending. *I wanted to write something 60-70 percent sad, 40-30 percent happy, and full of a familiar kinda love ^^ This is that! Its also a good excuse to call Inkubus ‘young man’ XD

Warnings: You’re an old woman and your death is definitely coming.

Tagging: @marinerainbow , @masqueradeball and @your-mxnd-is-mxne .

You’re a very old woman when he finally comes back to you.

You’re standing and looking out the window when the front door unlocks, no key needed, and someone slips in behind you. It could be a robber, but you doubt it; Not that you would have moved at all if it had been. You’re too old, too tired, too… dying. Its close, you know.

And that’s why you know exactly who’s back.

It’s been at least 40 years since he said he would see you again. At least he kept his word; you have to give him that. Even if he is a few decades later then you thought, even if he is just in time.

He always had excellent, albeit unfortunate timing.

Nevertheless you greet him with a warm grin- 30 years ago, you would have greeted this man with your knuckles to his face, but honestly your urge to hit him went away with menopause. Now, you don’t have time anymore to hold a grudge against him. Now, the warm afternoon sun is on your face and your favourite person is back. Its as simple as that.

When you glance away from the window, an odd calm feeling filling you up as soon as you see Inkubus for the first time in so long (A feeling that you don’t think you’ve felt since the last time. Like everything is right again now that he’s here), he’s removing his coat and leaving it on the back of your couch.

Like he lives here. Like he’s lived here with you this whole time. Right where he should have been.

Almost laughing, you roll your eyes. He still has brass balls, you see.

“… you took your time.” You finally speak, the words coming out stronger than you thought they would. Still weak, still tired, still old- but not once does your voice waiver.

“My apologies, dear. I was held up.”

The sound of his voice makes your heart plummet down underground, the sound just as perfect and devastating as it had been before. Better then you remember. “Mhm… “

For a moment you’re not sure what’s going to happen, next- is he going to take one good look at you and be disappointed? Disgusted? Would he pick up his coat and leave again? For a split millisecond you feel insecure about yourself, you feel old like one of those witches in a Brothers Grimm fairytale and you hate yourself for it, but you worry he wont like you anymore; this way.

Like a child.

Instead though a soft, though of course still mischievous, grin slips across Inkubus own old-face and he meets you at the window, taking your delicate hand and kissing it. Your eyes widen, still feeling like a child now- but in a good way. A silly, hopeless, butterflies-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach, hot-in-the-face, kind of way. “… why don’t we get you to a chair, dear.”

You’re quick to act stubborn, shaking your head. “I can stand.”

Theirs that amused twinkle in his eye that is so familiar with but felt so far away for so long. “Y/N I’ve been gone from you for a very long time and I missed out on assisting you all these years, so please… allow me to help you to a chair.”

… Your ankles are cramping, actually, so alright- Giving in, you offer a shrug and a gentle smile. While he guides you to your favourite chair by the hand, you decide to conversationally… rip into him. A little. “You know- you didn’t need to be gone so long, young man.”

“I had some things I needed to attend to.” He insists, once again not giving you any details- which is just fine. Knowing him, you don’t want to know. … It might actually put you in cardiac arrest. “And- “ A chuckle escapes him as you sit down which make you grin wider. “Young man, Y/N??”

“Hey, you used to call me young lady- I can finally return the favour!”

“Not really.”

“I’m finally older than you!”

“Not even slightly are you older than me, my dear.” Inkubus assures, standing behind your chair with his hands on the back. You turn your head and look up at him, screwing up your nose. “See? Still a child.”

“Oy!- “ You are an 83 year old woman, thanks so much-

When he rounds the chair to kneel in front of you and take hold both your hands this time, your mood sobers again, seeing that happy look in his eyes that you know he’s only ever gotten when he was around you. Taking a deep breath, you bite the bullet and address the elephant in the room. He should know already, that would be why he’s here you would wager, but you still need to say it. For him and for you. “… you know I’m about to die, don’t you?”

Theirs a grave, grim tinge to his expression now. “… well I wasn’t about to miss your final act was I, sweetheart?”

Quietly, so quietly, almost silently, you ask wince and ask; “… is it going to be tonight?”

He just gives you a serious-stern look, yes, and you sigh. Well alright. You suppose it is time. “Thanks for coming, then.”

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” He grins, and you know by this he means he wouldn’t have missed seeing you a last time for the world, not that he wouldn’t have missed you dying for the world, despite his odd and unfortunate phrasing. It does make you give a little huff of a laugh, though. Hopeless demon.

“Glad to hear it. … So you’re staying for the evening?”

“Oh, I’m making you dinner in fact.”

“Oh??” Your eyes light up, an actual full smile spreading across your face. He’s going to cook for you?? He’s staying??

“Mhm… “

“Well- “You laugh. “I hope you brought groceries because I’ve been living on canned spaghetti.”

With a chuckle, Inkubus rolls his eyes. “Honestly dear I would have thought you knew by now- I’m always prepared.

And also very concerned about your diet lately. Canned  spaghaetti??  This is probably why you’re on deaths door, love.”

Your jaw drops and you promptly flick him, before he gets up and presses a kiss to lips that hadn’t kissed for the 40 years he had been gone. Your eyelids fall immediately closed on impact and you could not be happier- on the day you were dying.

#Inkubus x Reader Drabble #Inkubus x Reader #Inkubus #Drabble #Horror Villains #Horror Villains x Reader

[bestworstcase]

do you have any thoughts on The Hunter’s Children? when i read it my immediate reaction was “this has to mean strq reunion” (and i have been banging that drum for years now) but i’m curious what you think about it

in general i read fairytales of remnant as an ozpin character study so i tend not to have STRQ at the forefront of my mind (see also: ‘the warrior in the woods’ was not originally about a silver-eyed warrior), and my immediate reaction to the hunter’s children was to look at this:

“No,” said the younger sister. “We need to study the Grimm, so we can figure out better ways to protect against them.” […] The younger sister ventured into the woods near her village and built a structure high on a tree branch from which she could observe Grimm safely. Whenever one came near, she calmed herself enough to avoid its attention while she made careful notes and sketches. But studying the Grimm in this passive state did not provide useful information about their strength and abilities in combat. […] “I was wrong. The best way to learn about the Grimm is by fighting them,” said the younger sister.

and then this:

This is one of my favorite fairy tales, and I include it here not only because its messages still resonate today—perhaps more than ever—but also because the hunter’s four children bear a striking resemblance to the four-student teams at each of our Huntsmen academies. One wonders if the king of Vale had this story in mind when he established them after the Great War.

and then exchange a meaningful glance with the corner of my brain where i just replay WOR: grimm on a continual loop and crack the fuck up. ozma modeled the curriculum of his academies on a story whose overt moral includes "scientific study of the grimm is a waste of time and useless, the right way to learn about them is killing them." and in the end killing is all that matters………

OUR marvelous capacity to learn from the experience of fighting grimm; THEIR perverse form of self-preservation making them more effective killers. salem is the funniest fucking person alive

also considering ozpin says it’s his "favorite fairytale" (and thus probably one he either made up in the first place or has retold often enough to have shaped the traditional narrative) and his CONSTANT PROJECTION,

“Because I hate the Grimm for killing your mother,” the hunter might answer. “And I hate myself for not being there when she died.” Dinner conversation was silent on those nights until one child would ask softly, “Tell us about Mother again.” And soon they would be sharing their favorite memories of her, such as her sharp sense of humor, her beautiful singing voice, and her gentle but firm hand in guiding their combat training.

<- this is about salem. or more specifically, it’s ozma’s grief and remembrance of salem refracted through an allegorical story about a man who couldn’t save his beloved wife from the grimm. (which. lmao.) and well. the lost fable begins with salem humming, and her way of teaching and training cinder is not far off from a twisted "gentle but firm" approach. that’s 2 of 3, and 3 of 3 taking into account her occasional moments of WITHERING DEADPAN SARCASM esp in narration and the "your mother said those words to me"/"hm! her again? :)" attitude she has adopted about these girls’ mother being her general and the "hm! you certainly do enjoy collecting assets!" gently ribbing cinder and the nasty "she thinks… she wants…" bit when she uses her sarcasm for evil. and "perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship :)" LISTEN TO ME. SALEM IS FUNNY. HUMOR IS HOW SHE COPES. OZMA MISSES HER JOKES…

ahem.

that said, rereading the story again i do see where you’re getting the STRQ parallels / reunion foreshadowing because yeah it’s.

younger sister: her semblance suppresses or banishes emotion with waves of "overwhelming calm," she uses it to go… live among the grimm…

younger brother: his semblance lets him hide in plain sight by closing his eyes, but grimm can still sense his presence; he stumbles around "safe" but blind until the younger sister rescues him.

older sister: her semblance leads her toward whatever she needs most, which in the story this turns out to be her younger siblings. she pledges her service to protect the village, but the grimm are so numerous and the villagers so upset that they’re forced to adopt a nomadic lifestyle to stay safe.

older brother: his semblance allows him to create a shared pool of aura between large groups of people connected by a rope; he travels around until he finds a surviving village and becomes their champion until they, too, are overwhelmed and forced to flee.

if summer willingly joined salem, then… yeah all four of these characters map very neatly onto team STRQ.

summer joined salem and learned from her how to tame / command / ally with / otherwise live safely among grimm; she’s the younger sister.

"bravado" is a description that suits tai’s character quite well, and when he’s "alone in the forest"—left by raven and summer and qrow—he winds up lost and blind, depressed, and he’s (emotionally) trapped there still, surrounded by grimm that have overrun vale and patch.

raven’s semblance links her to her family so she can always get to them; there’s some resonance too between the older sister’s leadership of the village and the branwen tribe in that the branwens need to stay on the move because, as bandits, they’re walking grimm bait. and the older sister is left behind, which is… pretty clearly how raven feels toward the rest of her team.

qrow as the older brother on the surface seems like he’s the odd one out but…considered metaphorically, the older brother’s semblance makes him weak when he is alone and strong with the support of a community, which is qrow’s emotional arc exactly; and the older brother also travels the world and (literally) binds people together, which, gestures at qrow telling yang where to find raven and bringing RNJR into the loop and so forth. also the clover pin semblance key change in v8.

…gonna put this one down as another tally in the "tai’s 'assignment' keeping him away from vacuo is summer" column.

[swimsauce]

Inscryption wordplay through names, and the mystery of P03's name

In Inscryption, the scrybes names are usually just nameified words to describe their area of expertise/what they are.

Grimora, wordplay on "grim", her field being death/mourning, + the "ora" to make it sound name-like. Maybe possibly a reference to grimm as in grimms fairytales? She does have an older theme/aesthetic with a quill for her main item, writing down the lives and tales of the dead.

Magnificus, play on "magnificent". Also alluding to magi/magic, maybe even the word magnus, all relating to the same root "magus" which means great and evolved to be used as a root word for magical words/terms.

Leshy is a bit different, as his name is literally just that of a forest creature in Russian/Slavic mythology. A leshy/i is a forest spirit/deity that lives and hunts forests. Apparently they also like the gamble and play cards too lol. There is also the noun "lesh", which means wool/hair (coming from the an old proto-albanian word for "foliage"), with a "y" added to nameify it. (a stretch I know but its neat)

P03 is the only one I don't know what his name is a play on. So I have a few of theories.

-It could be word jumble that vaguely relates to 3 letter computer/ tech related terms. Programs and parts with names like DOS, RAM,etc, or tech companies names like IBM or AOL. Even fictional computers like HAL follow this 3 letter naming convention, but none of these words relate too similarly to his name. The only possible 3 letter word that is similar is PSU (power supply unit), which could be in relation to his game mechanic, but it seems like a stretch.

- I also found for cars certain mechanical errors have similar name schemes. A P0300 error code means a misfiring cylinder, a P0030 means an oxygen sensor is malfunctioning. Maybe his name is an error code? We know that the old data seems to have corrupted the scribes, and P03 in some ways seems the worst off of the scrybes. He has locked his first personality away , as g0lly seems to be his original state , with his theme music reverting back to normal when he is playing as her. Even his appearance seems unkempt, with talk sprites body being dirty and scratched, and his screen is always twitching. So maybe his name is a mechanical error? However, if it is a mechanical in-world error, it doesn't really seem to effect him. He seems to have taken over the auto fill deck feature in ACTII (or maybe he is watching. Either way, he is monitoring this function) He can move to other scrybes islands and temporarily get rid of other scrybes when he wants (like with Magnificus). So it seems even all the way back in the "default" game of Act II he has a control over the game mechanics more than other scrybes. But if he does have more control over the game I don't understand why he would keep a mechanical error code for his name. It may also be a computer error code (like a 404) but those usually don't have letters in them. So dead end

- It does also look kind of like the name Poe but spelled in L33T (which is used in his cards), but the name doesn't seem to relate to him at all. The only thing I can think of is Edger Allen Poe, known for his dark and elaborate poetry. Ironic considering P03 is more concerned with game mechanics than story, to the point of annoyance. Maybe its an ironic jab, as it does seem through the Uberbots and his rant at the end of Act III that hints maybe deep down he wants to enjoy the stories he writes, but he's just to focused on the great transcendence to care. Anyways, probably not Poe then.

-The only possible lead may be a PoE, a "Power over Ethernet". It's an electrical connection which carries both internet and electrical power to a device. It relate to his awareness of the internet, as well as call to his motivation to escape to the online world.

Idk if I'm missing an obvious detail or if I'm overthinking this, but TLDR, in the base game P03's name does not fit with the other Scrybes in that it doesn't seem to allude to anything about his theme/personality. If anyone has some other ideas about this I'd love to know.

#analysis #inscryption #p03 #leshy #grimora #magnificus #scrybe #idk i just feel like the other names have pretty simple meanings and bases #that its odd p03's name is so obtuse #it stands out i feel like there should be smthn more #idk i may just be being mentally ill on main again #whatever lol